Navis aeria et elegiarum monobiblos.

8vo: xvi-151-[1] pp. (sm. foxing).

Contemp. vellum, flat spine, red sprinkled edges (contemp. ms. ownership covered at front flyleaf).

First edition of the Neo-Latin poem on aeronautics by the Ragusan Jesuit poet and translator Zamagna (1735-1820), inspired by the projects of another Jesuit, Francesco Lana Terzi (1631-1687), referred to as the Father of Aeronautics, contained in his "Prodromo, overo Saggio di alcune inventioni nuove, premesso all'Arte Maestra" (Brescia, 1670). Illustrated with a full-page ill. showing Lana's flying boat and a title vignette, both copper-engraved. Work published 14 years before Montgolfier's invention of the balloon.
Ref. DBS VIII:1451:2. - Tissandier, Bibliogr. aéronautique, p. 9. - Maggs Bros., 14.
Prov. "Can." Claudio Martelio (bookpl.).