[ ANNOTATED INCUNABULA ] - Satyrae, cum commentario - 1482

[ ANNOTATED INCUNABULA ]

[ THE COPY OF A ROMAN READER

FROM THE LATE 15th CENTURY :

BARTHOLOMEO TREVILLA ]

[ CURSE FORMULAS

AGAINST BOOK THIEVES ]

-

PERSIUS,

Satyrae, cum commentario,

Venice, Rainald von Nimwegen, 1482

(December 24, 1482)

In-folio, (21) ff. (sign.: a5 b6 c4 d6). Red morocco, triple gilt fillet on boards, spine ribbed, 19th-century Anglo-Saxon binding, (spine faded, rubbing at corners and hinges; light stains on last 2 ff., small worm work running throughout volume. First blank/white leaf not preserved. Dimensions: 29 x 20 cm.

References: GW M31373. ISTC, ip00345000, Hain-Copinger 12722*. Bibliography: D. Robathan and F. E. Cranz, "Persius, Aulus Flaccus", Catalogus translationum et commentariorum, III, pp. 201-312 (pp. 265-266). Anna Modigliani, "Il commercio a servizio della cultura a Roma nel Quattrocento", in P.Cherubini (ed.), Roma e lo Studium Urbis: spazio urbano e cultura dal Quattro al Seicento, 1992, appendix II, p. 273.

Provenances: 1. Bartolomeo de Trevilla, active at the end of the 15th c. in Rome: "Bartolomeus Trevilla Olara suo carissimo Honofrio S.P.D", handwritten bookplate on last leaf). 2. Harvard College Library "The gift of Mary Bryant Brandegee in memory of William Fletcher Weld" (armorial bookplate on first flyleaf, with exit stamp, and dry stamp at foot of f. a2). Mary Bryant Brandegee (1871-1956) made a major donation to Harvard in 1908 in memory of her grandfather William Fletcher Weld (1800-1881). The Harvard Library has confirmed to us to have sold that copya long time ago, being in possession of two others. The presence of so many copies of such a rare work by Perse in one place is explained in particular by Harvard's acquisition in 1900 of the exceptional collection devoted to Perse (575 volumes, including 295 editions by the author) assembled by Harvard professor & collector Morris H. Morgan.

Precious Venetian incunabula edition of Persius, accompanied by Bartolomeo Fonzio's commentary, which opens with a dedication to Lorenzo de' Medici. Fonzio is the author of the first commentary on Persia to be printed. Printed letter calls in the superscript refer to his short explanatory notes.

A fine copy decorated with 5 inked initials : from slightly later than the first manuscript annotation of the work (the first lettrine, f. a2v overlaps an annotation).

Our copy bears a contemporary bookplate of Bartolomeo Trevilla, who annotated the work at the end of the 15th century. This is probably the Roman "Bartholomeo de Trevilla" who appears among a list of witnesses in the will of the physician Tommaso de Veteribus drawn up in Rome on February 16, 1490 (the original is preserved at the Archivio di Stato in Rome, Collegio dei notai capitolini, 1117, cc. 90r-92r). Trevilla lived in the rione Campitelli ("in regione Campitelli"), a district that included the Capitoline Hill. The (H)onofrio he addresses ("Bartolomeus Trevilla Olara suo carissimo Honofrio S.P.D") is not identified.

Bartolomeo de Trevilla made interlinear annotations in Latin and Italian on the pages of the first three satires, by way of occasional clarifications; as a guide to his reading. He has paid particular attention to the first two satires. He rightly points out that the beginning of the first satire evokes Hesiodus ("sicut Hesiodus". The hapax perpagaeum (now considered an erroneous rendering) rightly strikes him as "highly poetic" (valde poeticum, f. a 3r). The adjective Caballino is glossed in Italian as "pegaso caballo" ("the Pegasus horse"), as is Psyttaco, glossed as "papagallo" ("the parrot"). The expression patritius sanguis is rendered as "nobiles poetae romani" ("noble Roman poets", f. a5r) and cynico as "philosopho" (f. b2v). In v. 29 he restores "puerorum" (children) next to cirratorum (curly-haired). He seems to confuse lincem (lynx) with lupum (wolf) (f. b1 r)!

Curious fact: on the verso of the last leaf are a few curse words agains book thieves. The annotator borrows one formula from Gerard of Siena (Treatise on Usury): "Sin will not be forgiven if what has been taken is not returned" ("Non remictitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum") and another from Jeremiah's Lamentations (48:10): "Cursed be the man who negligently does God's work" ("Maledictus homo qui opus Dei fecerit neglegenter"). These formulas are perfectly in tune with the spirit of Persia's satires, mocking arrogance and false devotion!

An interesting contemporary reading of an incunabula edition of Persius