MIRABILIS LIBER, qui p[ro]phetias revelationesque necnon res mirandas p[ræ]teritas presentes et futuras, aperte demonstrat. Paris, Enguilbert de Marnef, 4 September 1523. 2 parts in one volume, in-4, green half-maroquin, smooth spine decorated, long red title, mottled edges (Binding of the end of the 18th century). Dated second edition of the Mirabilis liber, one of the most important collections of prophecies of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, published, like the first a year earlier, by Enguilbert de Marnef. "Although the general look is the same, the typographical composition of this edition is different from the previous one, which proves that it was not a simple reprint," writes Bechtel. The Fairfax Murray catalogue describes it as "probably very similar to the first of 1522". A two-column printing in Gothic type decorated with numerous engraved initials and, on the last page, the Pelican mark of the Marnef brothers. The Mirabilis Liber consists of two parts, written in Latin and French respectively. The first part, in Latin, consists of prophecies taken mainly from the manuscripts of the abbey of Saint-Victor. Among the authors cited are Bishop Bemechobus, the Sybil of Tibur, Saint Brigid, Saint Severus, Johannes Lichtenberger, Joachim of Flora, and fragments by Catherine of Siena, Savonarola and others. The second part, written in French, is a short anthology dating from the end of the 13th century. Sometimes attributed to the magician Merlin, it is set in the year 600, under the pontificate of Gregory the Great. It is said to contain allusions to the future French Revolution. "Bechtel also writes: "Perfectly revealing of its time, namely the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, [this work] conveys on every page its problems (the establishment of strong monarchical states), its areas of concern (Italy, the papacy) and its fears (the Antichrist). The editio princeps of the Mirabilis liber is probably that of 1521, given by Jean Petit, and the two editions published by the Marnef brothers in 1522 and 1523 form the second and third editions of the work. Other editions appeared in the first half of the sixteenth century. The work is nevertheless extremely rare, especially when complete with both parts. Manuscript bookplate of the Célestins de Sainte-Croix-sous-Offémont repeated on the last two leaves. Copy of Abbé Hector Rigaux (1841-1930), parish priest of Argœuves, specialist in Nostradamus, with handwritten bookplate on one endpaper. Bechtel, M-356 - Moreau, III, n°550 - Brunet, III, 1742 - Fairfax Murray, n°382 ("apparently the second dated edition and probably very similar to the first of 1522") - J. Britnell & D. Stubbs, "The Mirabilis Liber: its Compilation and Influence", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LXV, 1986, pp. 126-149 - J. Halbronn, "De l'agencement des recueils prophétiques...", RFHL, n°134, 2013.