Stelluti Francesco (1577-1652) Persio Tradotto in Verso

Stelluti, Francesco (1577-1652) Persio Tradotto in Verso . Rome: Mascardi, 1630. First edition, quarto, engraved title, portrait, one full-page engraving, and five smaller text engravings; collated, lacking final blank; some browning and waterstaining to text leaves, in full contemporary limp parchment. This Italian translation of the Satires of Persius is the first book to contain an illustration of an object as viewed through a microscope. The full-page plate of the magnified bee includes views of the insect from top, bottom, and side, details of the head, legs, and mouthparts, and is in all, more scientific than literary.