Title: Vaticinium Severi, et Leonis Imperatorum, in quo videtur finis Turcarum in præsenti eorum Imperatore, Una cum alijs nonnullis in hac re Vaticanijs. Profetia di Severo, et Leone Imperatori, nella quale si vede il fine de Turchi nel presente [...]
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;">Full title:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;"> Vaticinium Severi, et Leonis Imperatorum, in quo videtur
finis Turcarum in præsenti eorum Imperatore, Una cum alijs nonnullis in hac re
Vaticanijs. </span><span lang="fr" style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;" xml:lang="fr">Profetia di Severo, et Leone Imperatori,
nella quale si vede il fine de Turchi nel presente loro Imperatore, Con alcune
altre Profetie in questo proposito</span></p><p></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span lang="fr" style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;" xml:lang="fr"></span></p><p> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;">8vo. pp. 106, [2]. Signatures: A-F⁸, G⁶. 16 full-page engravings.
Printer’s device (engraving of a dolphin around an anchor) on title page.</span></p><p></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;"></span></p><p> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;">First appearance in printed form of the “Oracles of Leo the Wise,”
a prophetic forgery which circulated widely throughout the Middle Ages and
early modern period. The prophecies were traditionally attributed to Leo VI
(866-911/12), Emperor of Byzantium from 866 to his death and, at least in the
present work, also to Antonius Severus (188-217), sole Emperor of Rome from his
murder of his brother in December 211 to his death – the book does not indicate
which Severus is intended, but the preface notes that he reigned from 212).</span></p><p></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;"></span></p><p> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;">For centuries, the Oracles of Leo constituted a rich and
imaginative source for the promotion of politically advantageous “vaticinium ex
eventu,” a prophecy from the event”—a prophetic text written by one who already
possesses the information of what has transpired so as to make their oracular
pronouncements unimpeachable and preternaturally “precise.” While the earliest
version of the text foretold the fates of various Byzantine emperors and events
that would befall Constantinople itself, the Oracles were later applied to
later events, such as the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.</span></p><p></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;"></span></p><p> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;">This collection of poems, each of which here paired with an
ambiguous emblematic illustration, was published in 1596 against the backdrop
of the “Long Turkish War” against the Habsburg empire’s Hungarian
principalities (1593-96). Later events, such as the siege and Battle of Vienna
(1683) and the death of Charles II (1700), inspired other scribal versions of
the Leonine Oracles.</span></p><p></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;"></span></p><p> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;">The illustrations in the current volume, rooted in animal and
anthropomorphic symbols, are closely keyed with guide letters to the relevant
epigrams and allied expositions detailing the verses’ pithy, if enigmatic,
meanings. The second prophecy of Repentance, for example, illustrated with two
crows and a serpent presents an allegory wherein the second son (i.e., the
serpent) will destroy the bear (i.e., the king or emperor), only to be savaged
itself by crows owing to descent from a degenerate eastern race, thus bringing
only despair and tears.</span></p><p></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:120%;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#000000;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/catalog/bib_8862176" rel="ugc nofollow"><span style="color:#4B64FF;background:#FFFFFF;">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins
University catalog record.</span></a></span></p><p></p>