THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE 18TH EARL OF DERBY, M.C., D.L.
SOLD BY ORDER OF THE EXECUTORS
APULEIUS MADAURENSIS, Lucius (b. ca.123). Opera. Edited by Joannes Andreae de Buxiis (1417-75), bishop of Aleria. - HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. Asclepius. - ALBINUS Platonicus (fl. 2nd century). Epitoma disciplinarum Platonis. Translated by Petrus Balbus (d.1479). Rome: [Conrad Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz], 28 February 1469.
Details
APULEIUS MADAURENSIS, Lucius (b. ca.123). Opera. Edited by Joannes Andreae de Buxiis (1417-75), bishop of Aleria. - HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. Asclepius. - ALBINUS Platonicus (fl. 2nd century). Epitoma disciplinarum Platonis. Translated by Petrus Balbus (d.1479). Rome: [Conrad Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz], 28 February 1469.
Median 2° (331 x 228mm). Collation: [16 2-1410 15-1612 1710 188] (1/1r dedicatory letter by Bussi to Pope Paul II, 1/6r register, 1/6v blank, 2/1r Metamorphoses, 9/7r Florida, 10/6v Apologia, 13/6r De Deo Socratis, 14/3r De dogmate Platonis, 14/8r De philosophia, 15/5r De mundo, 15/11v Hermes Trismegistus Asclepius, 16/12 blank, 17/1r dedicatory letter by Petrus Balbus to Nicolas de Cusa, 17/1r Albinus Epitoma, 18/8 blank). 177 (of 178, without final blank 18/8) leaves. 38 lines. Types 2:115R, 115Gk. Spaces for 2- to 8-line initials and headings. (Some marginal annotations washed, small wormhole in last 3 quires just touching a few letters.) Blue straight-grained morocco over pasteboard tooled in gilt and blind, spine in compartments, lettered in 3, blindstamped citron morocco doublures blindstamped with gilt roll-tooled border, citron free endpapers, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges (extremities scuffed), by Charles Hering, with his ticket. Provenance: inscription dated 1474 on first leaf (trimmed); Johannes Wolfgang Kneyssel, 1595 (inscription on first leaf); 17th-century monogram on first leaf; Earls of Derby (armorial and crest bookplates, Knowsley Hall shelfmark).
FIRST EDITION of all texts. This edition of Apuleius, joined by the Epitoma of Albinus and the Asclepius attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, prints fundamental texts of Neoplatonism ("Apuleius the Platonist", as St. Augustine called him), and attests to the centrality of platonic thought in the Renaissance. These texts formed part of the humanistic publishing programme followed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome, particularly with the involvement of Giovanni Andrea Bussi as editor. In the dedicatory letter Bussi praises Cardinal Bessarion who, in his defense of Gemistus Plethon, Adversus Platonis calumniatorem, published by Sweynheym and Pannartz later in 1469, listed such works as necessary to a full appreciation of platonic philosophy. The Asclepius of Hermes Trismegistus, of which Apuleius was considered the translator, was the only philosophical Hermetic work known in the west throughout the Middle Ages.
This edition was printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz, the first printers in Italy, after they had moved their press from Subiaco to Rome in 1467. According to Bussi, in 1472, 275 copies of this edition were printed. The Greek type, used here to print a song of Orpheus contained in the De mundo and quotations and names in that work and in the Asclepius, was the second ("also of great beauty" -- Proctor) used by Sweynheym and Pannartz; the first was used only at Subiaco.
An unusually tall copy. BMC IV, 6 (IB. 17115-6); GW 2301; HC *1314; IGI 769; Goff A-934.
Median 2° (331 x 228mm). Collation: [16 2-1410 15-1612 1710 188] (1/1r dedicatory letter by Bussi to Pope Paul II, 1/6r register, 1/6v blank, 2/1r Metamorphoses, 9/7r Florida, 10/6v Apologia, 13/6r De Deo Socratis, 14/3r De dogmate Platonis, 14/8r De philosophia, 15/5r De mundo, 15/11v Hermes Trismegistus Asclepius, 16/12 blank, 17/1r dedicatory letter by Petrus Balbus to Nicolas de Cusa, 17/1r Albinus Epitoma, 18/8 blank). 177 (of 178, without final blank 18/8) leaves. 38 lines. Types 2:115R, 115Gk. Spaces for 2- to 8-line initials and headings. (Some marginal annotations washed, small wormhole in last 3 quires just touching a few letters.) Blue straight-grained morocco over pasteboard tooled in gilt and blind, spine in compartments, lettered in 3, blindstamped citron morocco doublures blindstamped with gilt roll-tooled border, citron free endpapers, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges (extremities scuffed), by Charles Hering, with his ticket. Provenance: inscription dated 1474 on first leaf (trimmed); Johannes Wolfgang Kneyssel, 1595 (inscription on first leaf); 17th-century monogram on first leaf; Earls of Derby (armorial and crest bookplates, Knowsley Hall shelfmark).
FIRST EDITION of all texts. This edition of Apuleius, joined by the Epitoma of Albinus and the Asclepius attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, prints fundamental texts of Neoplatonism ("Apuleius the Platonist", as St. Augustine called him), and attests to the centrality of platonic thought in the Renaissance. These texts formed part of the humanistic publishing programme followed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome, particularly with the involvement of Giovanni Andrea Bussi as editor. In the dedicatory letter Bussi praises Cardinal Bessarion who, in his defense of Gemistus Plethon, Adversus Platonis calumniatorem, published by Sweynheym and Pannartz later in 1469, listed such works as necessary to a full appreciation of platonic philosophy. The Asclepius of Hermes Trismegistus, of which Apuleius was considered the translator, was the only philosophical Hermetic work known in the west throughout the Middle Ages.
This edition was printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz, the first printers in Italy, after they had moved their press from Subiaco to Rome in 1467. According to Bussi, in 1472, 275 copies of this edition were printed. The Greek type, used here to print a song of Orpheus contained in the De mundo and quotations and names in that work and in the Asclepius, was the second ("also of great beauty" -- Proctor) used by Sweynheym and Pannartz; the first was used only at Subiaco.
An unusually tall copy. BMC IV, 6 (IB. 17115-6); GW 2301; HC *1314; IGI 769; Goff A-934.