Details
February [not before June] 1501
MANUZIO, Aldo Pio Romano (Bassanio ca. 1452 - 1515 Venice). Rudimenta grammatices Latinae linguae. Super-chancery 4° (196 x 143 mm). Collation: a-l8 (a1r title, a1r-2r author's address to teachers misdated Mense Iunio M.CI, a2r Latin quatrain by Aldus, l8r colophon: Ven. mense Febr. DI). 88 leaves (of 108; lacking the Greek and Hebrew appendices, m-n8 o4, apparently not included with all copies). Types roman 10:82 (text), greek 3:84 (individual words, longer phrases in the section on patronymics), italic 1:80 (Aldus's letter). 37 lines. (Worming through inner blank margins of first three and last three quires, a few wormholes in last three leaves slightly affecting text, some minor stains.)
PREFACE: The author-printer believes that his basic grammar is best addressed to schoolmasters, not because they need his inept efforts -- although Pliny says no book is so bad but has some good in it -- but because they will kindly correct it in order to teach the young. The great of all kinds have once been under the care of their teachers, with both good and bad results. In his opinion it is more useful to learn something from Cicero or Virgil by heart than to memorize all those silly verses from Alexander de Villa Dei's grammar [whose Doctrinale went through innumerable editions in the 15th and 16th centuries].
BINDING: 18th-century Italian card boards, pink and blue-stained edges. PROVENANCE: young student's scribbles, 16th-century, on title.
Second edition of Aldus's Latin grammar (the first edition, printed at Venice in 1493 by his future father-in-law, Andrea Torresano, survives in a single copy at the Marciana). It was reprinted more than a dozen times in Italy as well as north of the Alps. THIS FIRST ALDINE EDITION IS EXTREMELY RARE and considered even harder to find on the market than the celebrated Virgil of the same year (April). The grammar reflects what Lowry calls Aldus's twin convictions: the dynamism of language and the predominance of classical authority. Explanations of Latin tenses and moods are given in Italian. Isaac 12765; Dionisotti & Orlandi XXV; Laurenziana 46; In Praise p. 35; R 31:9
MANUZIO, Aldo Pio Romano (Bassanio ca. 1452 - 1515 Venice). Rudimenta grammatices Latinae linguae. Super-chancery 4° (196 x 143 mm). Collation: a-l8 (a1r title, a1r-2r author's address to teachers misdated Mense Iunio M.CI, a2r Latin quatrain by Aldus, l8r colophon: Ven. mense Febr. DI). 88 leaves (of 108; lacking the Greek and Hebrew appendices, m-n8 o4, apparently not included with all copies). Types roman 10:82 (text), greek 3:84 (individual words, longer phrases in the section on patronymics), italic 1:80 (Aldus's letter). 37 lines. (Worming through inner blank margins of first three and last three quires, a few wormholes in last three leaves slightly affecting text, some minor stains.)
PREFACE: The author-printer believes that his basic grammar is best addressed to schoolmasters, not because they need his inept efforts -- although Pliny says no book is so bad but has some good in it -- but because they will kindly correct it in order to teach the young. The great of all kinds have once been under the care of their teachers, with both good and bad results. In his opinion it is more useful to learn something from Cicero or Virgil by heart than to memorize all those silly verses from Alexander de Villa Dei's grammar [whose Doctrinale went through innumerable editions in the 15th and 16th centuries].
BINDING: 18th-century Italian card boards, pink and blue-stained edges. PROVENANCE: young student's scribbles, 16th-century, on title.
Second edition of Aldus's Latin grammar (the first edition, printed at Venice in 1493 by his future father-in-law, Andrea Torresano, survives in a single copy at the Marciana). It was reprinted more than a dozen times in Italy as well as north of the Alps. THIS FIRST ALDINE EDITION IS EXTREMELY RARE and considered even harder to find on the market than the celebrated Virgil of the same year (April). The grammar reflects what Lowry calls Aldus's twin convictions: the dynamism of language and the predominance of classical authority. Explanations of Latin tenses and moods are given in Italian. Isaac 12765; Dionisotti & Orlandi XXV; Laurenziana 46; In Praise p. 35; R 31:9