The European Library

Aulus Gellius is Latin author who was born in the second century AD. He studied grammar and rhetoric at Rome and philosophy at Athens, after which he returned to Rome where he wrote his only work, the Attic Nights (in Latin: Noctes Atticae). The work is valuable because of its many excerpts from other authors (275) whose works are lost, and because of its interesting notes covering philosophy, history, biography, all sorts of antiquities, literary criticism, points of law, etc.

Noctes Atticae is Latin incunabula, printed in Venice in 1477 in the typography of Andrija Paltasic from Kotor in Montenegro. Paltasic is known to have printed the famous Greek and Roman works as well as the works of humanist writers, historiographers and lexicographers. Noctes Atticae, as well as other books printed by him, belongs to the age of Renaissance and represents his brilliant talent for the typography.

The text is in Latin and Greek letters, in very good condition and with wide margins. The book is consisted of 198 sheets and its dimensions are: 30x20cm. Binding: wooden plates covered with rabbit leather.

The Prayer book 1554 was printed by Vicenzo Vukovic, according to the Prayer book printed by his father Bozidar Vukovic Podgoricanin (“of Podgorica”, in Montenegro).The book was produced in the Vukovic printing shop in Venice, which was at the time the greatest and the most prolific press among the South Slavs.

This book is a collection of prayers written in Church Slavonic. It contains 234 pages marked with Cyrillic letters and Roman numbers. Renaissance decorative elements intertwine the text: frontispieces, vignettes and initials. Numerous proprietors and readers left their signatures, records and notes on the pages of this example. It is leather-bound and genuine; its dimensions are 21 x 15cm.

Joseph Roux is a hydrographer from Marseille, map publisher and manufacturer of navigating instruments. King of France granted him permission to be called “Hidrographe du Roy”.

This beautiful maritime atlas consists of 12 large engraved folding plates of the Mediterranean Sea. Illumination is expressed through flower motives, and flower ornaments in every corner and in centre of both sides, with ties. This atlas is dedicated to Duke Choiseul. It was published in Marseille, 1764. Map VII represents the Adriatic Sea. Dimensions: 60x35cm