Vaticinia seu praedictiones illustrium virorum. 

Second edition, elaborate architectural copper-engraved title with the prophets in medallions (Gioacchino da Fiore, to whom the work was and still is sometimes ascribed; Anselmo, bishop of Marsico; Giodoncho Palmerio; Giovanni abate; friar Egidio Polacco) and at the base the publisher’s brand (pilgrim, with staff and fluttering cloak), woodcut initials, headpieces and endpieces and six full-page copper-engraved prophetic wheels by Girolamo Porro in 1589, lacking E1, occasional light staining, wormtrail to title and first two text leaves, text unaffected, lacking rear endpapers, contemporary vellum over boards, front hinge repaired, 4to, Venice, Giovanni Battista Bertoni, 1605

An unusual collection of medieval papal prophecies, falsely attributed to Joachim of Fiore, modeled after Byzantine prophecies. The work consists of six groups of prophecies by Joachim of Fiore, Anselmus of Marsico, Giodocho Palmerio, Joannes Abbas and the Franciscan Aegidius Polanus, with commentary by Girolamo Giovanni, a beautiful engraved prophetic wheel by Girolamo Porro and the corresponding “Declaration of the Wheel”. The first two groups are an early 14th-century text, also known as Vaticinia de summis pontificibus, Vaticinia de apostolicis viris or Vaticinia pontificum.

Girolamo Giovannini was a Dominican theologian active in the Veneto, where he was, among other things, inquisitor in Vicenza.

Provenance: Library of Petri Buoninsegni

[Caillet 5542.]