Details
October 1514
VIRGIL. Opera. Ed. Andrea Navagero. Aldine 8° (158 x 88mm). Collation: a-b8 (Bucolics, a1r title Virgilius and device Fletcher no. 5, a1v dedication); c-z A-E8 (Georgics, Aeneid, E5r register and colophon, E6r-7v errata, E8v device 5). 224 leaves. Italic type 1:80. 30 lines and headline. Initial-spaces with guide-letters.
PREFACE: Dedicated by Aldus to one of his oldest and most influential friends, Pietro Bembo, who was secretary to Pope Leo X at this time. It is the penultimate preface (the Lucretius dedication to Pio being the last) he composed, before he died in 1515. It is also one of the most important as it throws unique and direct light on the inspiration for the slender-octavo format of his portable books. He writes that pondering who should be the dedicatee of this Virgil, he thought Bembo worthiest of the gift, both because the text is most correct (thanks to his friend Navagero) and no spurious verse has crept in to spoil the poet's greatness. Add to that the fact that Aldus has taken the handy format of this volume from Bembo's library, or rather from that of his father Bernardo. Only a few days ago, when Aldus requested it, he immediately lent him several little books [manuscripts] in this same format. Bernardo Bembo is now eighty-one, but free from all the ills of old age; his generosity and vigour remain unchanged. Fortunate is the son to have such a father, and the father such a son.
BINDING: fine 19th-century retrospective binding of red morocco, tooled in gold (white where the gold has not stuck) to an elaborate fanfare design, Aldine device stamped in the circular central compartment of the covers, floral roll on turn-ins, gilt and gauffered edges, marbled endpapers. Some early verse-numbering in the eclogues, but no other signs of provenance.
This last Virgil edition from the Aldine Press before the master's death is OF VERY GREAT RARITY. A reprint with the errata corrected was issued by his successors in the early 1520s, maintaining the original date in the colophon, but the two editions are easily distinguished (see Fletcher p. 120-21). Isaac 12843; Adams V-465; Dionisotti & Orlandi LXXXIX; Murphy 110a; Sansoviniana 150; Laurenziana 129a; R 68:8
VIRGIL. Opera. Ed. Andrea Navagero. Aldine 8° (158 x 88mm). Collation: a-b8 (Bucolics, a1r title Virgilius and device Fletcher no. 5, a1v dedication); c-z A-E8 (Georgics, Aeneid, E5r register and colophon, E6r-7v errata, E8v device 5). 224 leaves. Italic type 1:80. 30 lines and headline. Initial-spaces with guide-letters.
PREFACE: Dedicated by Aldus to one of his oldest and most influential friends, Pietro Bembo, who was secretary to Pope Leo X at this time. It is the penultimate preface (the Lucretius dedication to Pio being the last) he composed, before he died in 1515. It is also one of the most important as it throws unique and direct light on the inspiration for the slender-octavo format of his portable books. He writes that pondering who should be the dedicatee of this Virgil, he thought Bembo worthiest of the gift, both because the text is most correct (thanks to his friend Navagero) and no spurious verse has crept in to spoil the poet's greatness. Add to that the fact that Aldus has taken the handy format of this volume from Bembo's library, or rather from that of his father Bernardo. Only a few days ago, when Aldus requested it, he immediately lent him several little books [manuscripts] in this same format. Bernardo Bembo is now eighty-one, but free from all the ills of old age; his generosity and vigour remain unchanged. Fortunate is the son to have such a father, and the father such a son.
BINDING: fine 19th-century retrospective binding of red morocco, tooled in gold (white where the gold has not stuck) to an elaborate fanfare design, Aldine device stamped in the circular central compartment of the covers, floral roll on turn-ins, gilt and gauffered edges, marbled endpapers. Some early verse-numbering in the eclogues, but no other signs of provenance.
This last Virgil edition from the Aldine Press before the master's death is OF VERY GREAT RARITY. A reprint with the errata corrected was issued by his successors in the early 1520s, maintaining the original date in the colophon, but the two editions are easily distinguished (see Fletcher p. 120-21). Isaac 12843; Adams V-465; Dionisotti & Orlandi LXXXIX; Murphy 110a; Sansoviniana 150; Laurenziana 129a; R 68:8