I came across an entry in a catalog for a book with, as early modern books are wont to have, a really long title. The title in the
Worldcat citation is I
obi Ludolfi aliàs Leut=holf dicti Historia Aethiopica: sive brevis & succincta descriptio regni Habessinorum, quod vulgò malè Presbyteri Iohannis vocatur : in qua libris quatuor agitur ... : cum tabulâ capitum, & indicibus necessariis, which is more than a mouthful. Who was it that said that his mouth felt as if a mouse had pissed in it, then died? At any rate, no doubt that's how I'd feel if I tried to declaim that title.
What really drew me to the book, however, was the description for the illustrations noted in the catalog I was consulting. To wit:
Map - Ethiopia. Banana. Sheep. Elephants. Monkeys. Hippopotamus. Execution - Beheading of missionaries.
Where else can you get a banana, elephant, and a beheading, all in one, convenient seventeenth century package?
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