This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/28/2023
JUSTUS, Pascasius. DE ALEA. Amsterdam: Ludovic Elzevir, 1642. Engraved title by Cornelius van Dalen depicting a group of men playing dice while a woman looks on from a balcony above. Contemporary vellum. 12mo. Flyleaf separated, else very good. See Catalogue Raisonnae de la Bibliothèque Elzevirienne de feu Jules Chenu, 363.
De Alea was one of the first books to examine gambling addiction from a medical rather than a moral point of view, a popular theory of the era. The Elzevirs were among Holland’s best-regarded printers throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, renowned for their small books and the quality of their publications.