- CONTI (Natale). Mythologiae, sive explicationis fabularum, libri decem : in quibus omnia prope naturalis & moralis philosophiae dogmata contenta fuisse demonstrantur. Nuper ab ipso auctore recogniti & locupletati. Eiudem libri IIII de Venatione. Cum indice triplici, rerum memorabilium, urbium & locorum a variis heroibus denominatorum, ac plantarum & animalium singulis Diis dicatorum (...). Addita Mythologia Musarum, a Geofredo Linocerio uno libello comprehensa, & nunc recens a F.S. multis & foedis mendis expurgata. Paris, Sébastien et Simon Aubray, 1605, large vol. in 8°, [8] ff. n. ch. (title, dedication, bibliography), [1125] pp. misfigured 1123 (there are two different ff. numbered 431-32), [161] pp. n. ch. small type, soft vellum, handwritten title on spine, trace of laces (contemporary binding). Slight light spotting supra-page at the beginning of the volume, but a good copy. One of the many reprints of this treatise on mythology, which first appeared in 1567 at the address of Venice, and enjoyed considerable success. Natale Conti (1520-1582), born in Milan, spent his entire life in Venice: he gave an interpretation of classical mythology that is close to both esotericism and that of the symbolists (myths contain, in a way that is deliberately concealed from the layman, the secrets of the various forms of knowledge). This conception had a great influence on the post-Renaissance humanists, who passed on several applications of it in literature and the arts, based on forced allegorization. Very soon after the popularization of this thesis, Scaliger already gave a virulent criticism of it. Brunet II, 185.