Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2008 Issue
Recent Acquisitions 1548-1990 from Libreria de Antano
This monster supposedly appeared in France in 1654.
Item 13, Relacion verdader del viage... provides an account of Francesco Cardinal Barberini's visit to Barcelona in 1626. Barberini had been named a Cardinal in 1623, coincidentally enough the same year his uncle was named Pope. Barberini was a prominent diplomat during the twenty-year papacy of Urban VIII. He was still quite a young Cardinal, in his 20's, when he paid this diplomatic visit. Cardinal Barberini was involved in many diplomatic missions during the way too long Thirty Years War, which wiped out a sizeable portion of the population of central Europe, and was noted as a humanist and patron of the arts. The trial of Galileo took place during Urban VIII's papacy, but Cardinal Barberini was one of the judges who refused to sign his sentence. When Galileo was sentenced, the Cardinal arranged for Gallileo to serve it in comfortable surroundings, rather than in a monastery as originally planned. He also opposed the banning of Galileo's Dialogue, instead calling only for a few diplomatic revisions. $1,750.
Item 22 is an account of a monstrous animal that supposedly appeared in Villa de Lyes, France, in 1654. Relacion del monstruoso animal... is the same as an account of such an appearance in 1645. This was a period when the sightings of strange creatures were as common as the sightings of aliens from outer are space today. $3,200.
Liberia de Antano may be contacted at (5411) 4822-7178 or info@antano.com.ar.
