ANNOTATED SATIRES
PERSIUS.
Auli Persii Flacci satyrae sex. Cnm [sic] annotatiu[n]culis in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1541.
8vo, ff. 12; woodcut device to title, criblé initial, text in italics; short, closed marginal tear to f. 6, a little creasing to inner margins, a few light marks; very good in modern stiff vellum, ‘Persius 1541’ in ink to upper cover; boards bowed; interlinear and marginal annotations in a contemporary hand to ff. 2r-8v.
Added to your basket:
Auli Persii Flacci satyrae sex. Cnm [sic] annotatiu[n]culis in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.
Uncommon Colines edition of the Satires of Persius, the first four of which are heavily annotated by a contemporary student, no doubt studying at the University of Paris. Written in a rapid cursive, likely direct from the lecturer’s mouth, his notes provide a snapshot of the teaching provided on the great Stoic satirist in the French capital at the opening of the 1540s.
Colines (1480–1546) worked initially for Henri Estienne (marrying his widow) before becoming printer to the University of Paris in 1522. He pioneered the use of italic types in France. His first edition of Persius, aimed at the student market, appeared in 1528 with, as here, the marginal comments of Celio Secondo Curione.
The interlinear annotations in this copy paraphrase and explain the text. So, for example, the ‘barbatum magistrum’ of 4.1 is identified as Socrates, and ‘Anticyras’ at 4.16 as hellebore. The marginalia classify linguistic and rhetorical devices employed by Persius (e.g. ‘allegoria’, ‘antiptosis’, ‘metonimia’, ‘prosopopoeia’, ‘sincopa’, ‘periphrasis’); provide textual emendations (e.g. ‘tremor albus’ at 3.115 is corrected to ‘timor albus’); and note variant readings (e.g. beside the famous line ‘respue quod non es’ (4.51) is a note ‘respice alias’). The marginalia become particularly dense at the end of Satire 3 and opening of Satire 4.
In the former a hungover student is harangued by a friend, and the annotations display an interest in Persius’ notable description of physical illness. In Satire 4, Persius uses Socrates as the voice of self-knowledge, initially in conversation with the young politician Alcibiades. The marginalia show a close study of the opening section, in which Socrates attacks his interlocutor for his superficiality, lack of knowledge, and unfitness to hold political power. A further marginal note explains a reference to Baucis at 4.21.
USTC 140287; not in Renouard. One copy recorded in the UK (V&A), and 3 in the US (Harvard, Stanford, William & Mary Libraries).
