Ancient Books - Pre 1700 - An Antique Books Guide

Antique books are all very well but ancient books are where true history lies.
Usually I define books (and all sorts of objects for that matter) in the following age brackets:

Modern - 1990 onwards
Retro - 1970-1989
Vintage - 1930-1969

New Antique - 1910's-1929
Antique - 1850-1910's
Old Antique - 1750-1849
Ancient - earlier than 1750

For this post I shall be looking at a single book I have recently looked after - dating from 1581 and thus firmly in what I would class as the ancient bracket.

This post is primarily photo based - for those who haven't seen a book this old before.
I do also want to show some of the most interesting features of such an old book and so will comment below photos for detail.

Details:
Tertia Pars Summae Sacre + Sum Commenatriis, S. Thomae & D. Thomae, Lugduni, 1581, 748pp

* Gilt decorated spine

* Title page with woodcut illustration and inked out inscription

* Title page close-up

* Here is the most notable feature - a stunning arcane illuminated letter

* Surprisingly decorative - note further illustration around the letter 'V'

* Full-size folio page with further illumination

This is a large but atypical 'ancient' volume, showing basic illustration and frequent illumination to key letters.

Stay tuned for more new posts coming soon.

Thanks for reading and please share if this interested you!