FROM CLASSICS TO CIRCUMCISION
AUSONIUS, Decimus Magnus.
Ausonii Burdigalensis, viri consularis, omnia, quae adhuc in veteribus bibliothecis inveniri potuerunt, opera … cuncta ad varia, vetera, novaque exemplaria, emendata, commentariisque illustrata per Eliam Vinetum …
Bordeaux, Simon Millanges, 1580.
Two parts in one vol., 4to, ff. [394]; title in red and black with woodcut device, initials, head- and tailpieces, a few woodcut illustrations and diagrams to the second part; Ddd1.4 misbound within Ddd2.3, some foxing to title, some marginal damp staining, occasional browning, very small wormhole to lower inner margins, a few marginal paper flaws and closed tears; overall very good in nineteenth-century sheep over boards, five raised bands and gilt-lettered red morocco lettering-piece to spine, red edges, marbled endpapers; extremities rubbed; ownership inscription ‘N. Le Gros 1591’ to title; marginal annotations in two early hands to c. 48 pp.
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Ausonii Burdigalensis, viri consularis, omnia, quae adhuc in veteribus bibliothecis inveniri potuerunt, opera … cuncta ad varia, vetera, novaque exemplaria, emendata, commentariisque illustrata per Eliam Vinetum …
First Vinet edition of the works of the fourth-century poet Ausonius, with interesting annotations by two early readers. Ausonius taught rhetoric in his native Bordeaux for thirty years before serving as tutor and then consul to the emperor Gratian. He was a prolific poet, employing a variety of metres with great technical flair, his most important works being the Ephemeris, describing a normal day in his life, and the Mosella, detailing the beauties of the river Moselle and the life that goes on around it. The noted French classical scholar Élie Vinet (1509–1587) compiled this edition of Ausonius’ works between 1575 and 1580, his extraordinary commentary occupying over half the volume and featuring several woodcuts, including a full-page plan of Bordeaux.
This copy contains numerous marginal annotations in Latin and occasional Greek in the attractive hand of N. Le Gros, whose signature to the title bears the date 1591. Le Gros’s marginalia clarify words and mythological references within Ausonius’ poems, referencing a whole host of Greek and Latin writers, including Boethius, Donatus, Homer, Isidore of Seville, Ovid, Plato, Propertius, Servius, Strabo, and Virgil, as well as later writers such as Andrea Alciato, Filippo Beroaldo, and Jean Passerat. His interesting notes to the Ephemeris include asides on the biblical patriarch Enoch, circumcision, and the Milky Way, while those to the Mosella discuss the cloud nymph Nephele, and the lighthouse at Alexandria. The marginalia of the second annotator refer, for example, to Hermaphroditus, Pythagoras, and more earthly concerns such as libido and baldness.
Adams A-2282; USTC 110042.
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LAMB, Charles.
John Woodvil a Tragedy ... to which are added, Fragments of Burton, the Author of the Anatomy of Melancholy.
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