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Important Apuleius edition printed by the Officina Plantiniana in Leiden

APULEIUS, Lucius.
Opera omnia quae exstant. E quibus, post ultimam P. Colvii editionem, Philosophici libri ope vetustiss. Cod. Ms. innumeris mendis expurgati; quam plurimis locis aucti, per Bon. Vulcanium Brugensem.

Woodcut printer's device and initials.

Woodcut printer's device and initials.

Woodcut printer's device and initials.



Leiden, Ex officina Plantiniana, apud Franciscum Raphelengium, 1594. 8vo. Contemporary overlapping vellum, title in ink on spine. Woodcut printer's device and initials. (16), 80, 383 pp.

Third edition of Apuleius' Opera omnia published by the 'Officina Plantiniana (Franciscus (I) Raphelengius) in Leiden, including of course the Metamorphoses ('The Golden Ass', here on pp. 1-214) and his Platonic texts. The first edition was published in 1587, edited by Petrus Colvius (1567-1594); the second: 1588, together with inter alia lib. Peri Hermèneias (Gr). Our third edition was party edited for the first time by the Dutch humanist and professor of Greek and Latin in Leiden, Bonaventura Vulcanius (1538-1614).

Lucius Apuleius Platonicus (c. 123/125 - c. 180) was a Romanized Berber, remembered most for his bawdy picaresque Latin novel, the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass or, in Latin, the Asinus Aureus. It's the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. The date of composition of the Metamorphoses is uncertain. It has variously been considered by scholars as a youthful work preceding Apuleius' Apology of 158/9 AD, or as the climax of his literary career and perhaps as late as the 170s or 180s. Apuleius adapted the story from a Greek original, possibly by Lucius of Patrae.

The book starts after the title with a letter by Bonaventura Vulcanius to Theodorus Canterus, dated Leiden, 1 October 1593 (ff. 2r-4r), the 'Ordo librorum' (f. 4v), the 'Animadversiones aliquot B. Vulcanii in Apulaii Libros Philosophicos' (ff. 5r-8r), and a laudatory poem for the editor Bon. Vulcanius by Janus Kotterius. With a separate pagination follow the philosophical works: 'De Mundo' (pp. 1-26), 'De dogmata Platonis' (pp. 26-39), 'De Philosophia' (pp. 40-59),and  'De Deo Socratis' (pp. 60-79; pp. 69-76 mis-numbered437-444!); on p. 80 a letter by the editor Petrus Colvius to Gislenius Busbequius (1520-1591), dated 15 July 1587.
The 'Metamorphoseon sive De asino Aureo' is on pp. 1-214, followed by Apuleius''Floridorum libri III (pp. 215-46), 'A[pologia I-II (pp. 247-329), 'Peri Ermeneias, sive De syllogismo categorico (pp. 330-45), a citation from Menander (p. 346), 'Fragmenta et tituli' (pp. 347-8), 'De natura deorum, ad Asclepium adlocuta': the translation into Latin by Apuleius (the text is sometimes also attributed to Asclepius) of the Asclepius attributed to Hermes Trismegistus in the form of a dialogus between Hermes and his pupil Asclepius. The original Greek is lost and partially preserved in Latin. The first part is on the position of man in the universe and his relation to God, the earth and heaven; the second is on good and evil, and the third contains fragments. among others on a bloody prophecy of the end of Roman rule in Egypt and the resurgence of pagan Egyptian power  (pp. 349-80), and a 'Vita Apuleii ex editione Colviana' (pp. 381-3).

Fair copy with contemporary annotations in Latin and Greek in text and on end-papers, and some underlining in text.- (Binding loose, ownership's entry of first fly-leaf erased).
Breugelmans, Leiden imprints, p. 5; Typ. Bat. 280; Adams A-1369.

Related Subjects: Classical Antiquity  Latin  Literary History  Literature 

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