Small 4to (207 x 148 mm). Engraved title-page, engraved portrait of Persius, full-page engraved plate depicting a bee as seen under a microscope, 5 small engravings. (O4 with 1-in. paper flaw affecting 7 lines of text Contemporary vellum gilt (upper hinge starting). Provenance: Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (1661-1715) English stateman and poet (armorial bookplate dated 1702); David Garrick (1717-1779) Shakespearean actor and playwright (bookplate)

FIRST EDITION of Stelluti's translation, and THE FIRST BOOK TO CONTAIN ILLUSTRATIONS OF NATURAL OBJECTS AS SEEN THROUGH THE MICROSCOPE. Stelluti, a friend of Galileo and a founder of the Accademia Dei Lincei, used a microscope given to his fellow founder Federico Cesi by Galileo, which he used to make detailed observations of insects.  Stelluti's illustrations of the honeybee first appeared in an extremely rare broadside by Cesi in 1625 (known in two copies), but the Persio contains the first such illustrations to appear in a book. Garrison-Morton 259; Nissen ZBI 3988; Wellcome I:4917.