Venice, Simone Bevilacqua, June 26, 1493.
Folio, modern vellum, (157) f. (signature: a-c8, d-e6, f-s8, t-u6, x5, without final blank).
Beautiful Venetian incunable printing of Catullus and the Latin elegiac poets, with the commentary of Antonio Partenio. A precious copy annotated by two enlightened readers: one contemporary to the edition and the other from the mid-sixteenth century. The first reader focused on noting down aphorisms, rare words, and figures. He is interested in linguistic issues. For example, he approves the “comparison” (actually a metaphor) between newlyweds and thieves in nuptial song 62, v. 34 (recta omparatio, on f. h 3v). Occasionally, he shows concern for establishing the text and understanding its details finely.
Elegant manicules are also noticeable; sometimes with atypical forms, particularly facing the poem “Ad Lesbiam” on countless kisses: ” Quaeris quot mihi basiationes / tuae, Lesbia, sint satis superque / Quam magnus numerus Libyssae harenae …” (“You ask, Lesbia, how many of your kisses are enough and more than enough for me, As many as the grains of sand in Libya’s desert …”). The second reader annotated the book in the mid-sixteenth century, with a more expansive and cursive handwriting. He criticizes certain editorial choices in the margin. The first reader made also few notes on Propertius. He particularly makes a remark on a passage from Elegy II, 18 about the foreign cosmetics with which Cynthia adorned herself (f. o 2r): alongside the detailed commentary noting that women particularly used a bright red makeup, the reader adds the word “brasil,” the name of a red pigment derived from one of Brazil’s dye-woods then in vogue in illumination!
Offered by Librairie Nicolas Malais
$9000
To purchase, contact librairie–nicolas@orange.fr
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