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MACROBIUS, Ambrosius Theodosius (fl. early 5th century). In somnium Scipionis expositio. -Saturnalia. Brescia: Boninus de Boninis, de Ragusia, 6 June 1483.
Super-chancery 2° (302 x 211mm). 191 (of 192, without first blank) leaves (collation as BMC). Roman type 3:111, 85, gothic type 58 (Haebler 12, for diagrams and map) and Greek type 111, some spaces for Greek, 37 lines and headline, shoulder notes. Woodcut map, woodcut diagrams, 2- to 9-line initials alternating in red and blue. (Small, light dampstain at extreme upper margin, small wormhole in first and final leaf.)
BINDING: contemporary blind-tooled fawn goatskin over wooden boards, bound for Antonio Pillone by Belluno Bindery B, the sides decorated with borders formed by repeated impressions of knotwork and other tools, another knotwork tool decorating central panel, spine in 4 compartments with triple fillets forming lozenges, one of two floral tools in each lozenge, 5 brass bosses to each cover (2 missing), 2 (of 4) clasps with shaped brass catches on lower cover, a pair of vellum endleaves (a few light stains, slight wear at spine ends). Provenance: Antonio Pillone (binding, numerous annotations and corrections, probably in his hand); Odorico Pillone (fore-edge); Sir Thomas Brooke (bookplate); Berès 36.
VECELLIO FORE-EDGE PAINTING: seated figure of Scipio, dreaming with his head on his hand, in the opening of a green tent, title lettered vertically and horizontally. Other edges orange marbled with grey.
Second edition, the first to include a woodcut map. A map is integral to the text, as the author outlines his neoplatonic geographical theories in the first and second books of the commentary; a map is found in about 100 surviving manuscripts of the work. The map created for the present edition shows a spherical world with the land masses compressed into two zones and with a flowing ocean. Nordenskiöld called this the first map 'on which the currents of the sea are denoted', but Campbell has pointed out that the flow in the map, rather than depicting currents, depicts the 'belief (attributable to Homer) that the world was encircled by a constantly moving ocean stream' (Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, 87). The map was re-used and copied in 5 later incunable editions and its influence has been traced as late as 1640. BMC VII, 968 (IB. 31072); HC *10427; IGI 5924; Goff M-9; Sander 4072.
Super-chancery 2° (302 x 211mm). 191 (of 192, without first blank) leaves (collation as BMC). Roman type 3:111, 85, gothic type 58 (Haebler 12, for diagrams and map) and Greek type 111, some spaces for Greek, 37 lines and headline, shoulder notes. Woodcut map, woodcut diagrams, 2- to 9-line initials alternating in red and blue. (Small, light dampstain at extreme upper margin, small wormhole in first and final leaf.)
BINDING: contemporary blind-tooled fawn goatskin over wooden boards, bound for Antonio Pillone by Belluno Bindery B, the sides decorated with borders formed by repeated impressions of knotwork and other tools, another knotwork tool decorating central panel, spine in 4 compartments with triple fillets forming lozenges, one of two floral tools in each lozenge, 5 brass bosses to each cover (2 missing), 2 (of 4) clasps with shaped brass catches on lower cover, a pair of vellum endleaves (a few light stains, slight wear at spine ends). Provenance: Antonio Pillone (binding, numerous annotations and corrections, probably in his hand); Odorico Pillone (fore-edge); Sir Thomas Brooke (bookplate); Berès 36.
VECELLIO FORE-EDGE PAINTING: seated figure of Scipio, dreaming with his head on his hand, in the opening of a green tent, title lettered vertically and horizontally. Other edges orange marbled with grey.
Second edition, the first to include a woodcut map. A map is integral to the text, as the author outlines his neoplatonic geographical theories in the first and second books of the commentary; a map is found in about 100 surviving manuscripts of the work. The map created for the present edition shows a spherical world with the land masses compressed into two zones and with a flowing ocean. Nordenskiöld called this the first map 'on which the currents of the sea are denoted', but Campbell has pointed out that the flow in the map, rather than depicting currents, depicts the 'belief (attributable to Homer) that the world was encircled by a constantly moving ocean stream' (Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, 87). The map was re-used and copied in 5 later incunable editions and its influence has been traced as late as 1640. BMC VII, 968 (IB. 31072); HC *10427; IGI 5924; Goff M-9; Sander 4072.