De Antichristo
Maximi Xanthori Tubiti
De Antichristo. Curiosissimus Liber... Naples, Roselli, 1712 (22 cm, 262 pp.+index, antique full parchment binding, defects).
Interesting and rare ancient edition, an esoteric work by the Apulian (from Altamura, Bari) Massimo Santoro Tubito (...altiliensis, seu Altimurani); a work of which it is obviously impossible to give a summary of the extensive content, divided into "nine treatises", with a long preface by the author and chapters corresponding to the various books of which we give some hints by interpreting the Latin text as:
- The Antichrist and the times that preceded his coming
- Conception and growth of the Antichrist
- Education and progress of the Antichrist from his adolescence to his coronation and to the kingdoms of Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia
- Of the kingdom and monarchy of the Antichrist, of his customs, doctrine and miracles
- Of the invasion of the Holy Land and Jerusalem, of his supreme blasphemy...
- De Fraudolentia & Versutia Antichristis; & Quare Deus Hoc Tam Detestabile Monstrum, Sive Malum Permittet Venire in Mundum
- Of the persecution of the Antichrist towards Christians
- Of the advent and preaching of Enoch and Elijah at the time of the Antichrist....
- De Exitiali Strage Exercituum Gog & Magog, & Morte Antichristi.
Edition embellished with a beautiful full-page portrait, depicting Pope Clement XI, an etching by the well-known Neapolitan artist Stanzione (on the plate in the lower right "Stanzione Formis"), with the Pope inside an artistic medallion surrounded by vegetable motifs, two little angels below (one of whom holds a coat of arms) and a papal coat of arms at the bottom center; and numerous small beautiful woodcut engravings inserted in the text both as initials-drop caps and as headpieces or tailpieces.
