Forum Rare Books | Rare Books

< Back

On the Latin language: the most important Renaissance dictionary/encyclopaedia, together with the three main classical texts on the subject

PEROTTUS (PEROTTO, PEROTTI), Niccolò.
In hoc volumine habentur haec. # Cornucopiae, sive linguae Latinae commentarij diligentissime recogniti: atque ex archetypo emendati. # Index copiosissimus dictionum omnium ... # Eiusdem Sypontini libellus, quo Plynij epistola ad Titum Vespasianum corrigitur. # Cornelij Vitellij in eum ipsum libellum Sypontini annotationes. # M. Terentij Varronis de lingua Latina libri tres: Quartus. Quintus. Sextus. # Eiusdem de analogia libri tres. # Sexti Pompeij Festi undeviginti librorum fragmenta. # Nonij Marcelli Compendia, in quibus tertia ferè pars addita est: non ante impressa ...

Woodcut printer's device on title repeated on verso of last leaf.

Colophon on K8r: Venice, in aedibus Aldi & Andrea Soceri, May 1517. Colophon on Y7v: Venice, in aedibus Aldi Folio. Modern brown calf with gilt title on spine, new endpapers. Woodcut printer's device on title repeated on verso of last leaf. 440 lvs., ff. 1-79 (1 blank), cols. 1-492 494-495 495-602 563-564 606-967 668-669 970-1018 1021-1022 1021-1024 1013-1014 1027-1408 1397-1398 1411-1436, ff. (1 blank) [Collation: '*'-10'*'8 a-z8 A-Y8 (Q3 unsigned)].

Third Aldine edition of this collection of the main texts on the Latin language available to the early humanists: the most important Renaissance dictionary/encyclopaedia, written by Niccolo Perroti, together with the three most important and influential classical texts on the subject by Varro, Festus and Nonius Marcellus.
The greater part of this impressive Aldus edition is occupied by the Cornucopia of the Italian humanist Perotti. Written as a commentary on book I of Martial, it includes a discussion on almost every word of Martial's text and thus transcended its original ambition, becoming a standard work of reference on the Latin language. One commentator calls it 'a massive encyclopedia of the classical world. Every verse, indeed every word of Martial's text was a hook on which Perotti hung a densely woven tissue of linguistic, historical and cultural knowledge'. The book was dedicated to the condottiere Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino (whose portrait was painted by Pierro della Francesco). The work was revised and expanded by Perotti's son Pyrrhus who made a number of additions of his own.
The first edition of the Cornucopia was published in Venice by Paganino de Paganin in 1489; the first Aldine edition in 1499. Our edition is a page-for-page reprint of the second Aldus edition of 1513. The colophon on the last column has still 'November 1513', while the colophon at the end of the Cornucopia has 'November 1517 (col. 1054). In the first1499 edition Aldus explains in the preface that the text has been carefully numbered by page and by line (as also in our edition, so that the index can be precisely keyed. This marked the inception of a modern scholarly system of reference (see F. Geldner, Inkunabelkunde, p. 69).

Niccolò Perotti or Perottus (1429-1480) was an Italian cleric and humanist writer, born and died in Sassoferrato near Fano (Italy). From 1451 to 1453 he taught rhetoric and poetry at the University of Bologna. In 1452 he was made Poet Laureate in Bologna by the Emperor Frederick III, as acknowledgment of his speech of welcome. He was the papal secretary from 1455 and he was made archbishop of Siponto in 1458.
Although his later career was as a papal governor, he continued his scholarly pursuits, editing the works of the Roman writers Pliny and Martial.
Apart from his Cornucopia, he wrote a Latin school grammar, Rudimenta Grammatices (printed by Pannartz and Sweynheim in 1473), one of the earliest and most popular Renaissance Latin grammars, which attempted to exclude many words and constructions of medieval, rather than classical, origin. Described by Erasmus as 'accurate, yet not pedantic', it became a bestseller of its day, going through 117 editions. With Pomponio Leto, he produced a version of the poet Martial's Epigrammaton in the 1470s.

To the Cornucopia are added: the three most important classical text on the grammar and etymology of the Latin language:
- cols. 1057-1110: Marcellus Terentius Varro (116-27BC), a prolific classical author of whom only two works partly survive. In this Aldus edition the known books 4-6 of his most famous work De lingua Latina are given, together with the three books De analogia (cols. 1093-1110), which also belong to the De lingua Latina.
- cols. 1111-1226: of the Roman grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus (2nd cent. AD) is added his epitome in 21 books of the encyclopaedic treatise De verborum significatione of Valerius Flaccus. Festus gives the etymology as well as the meaning of many words, and his work throws considerable light on the Latin language, mythology and antiquities of ancient Rome. Of Festus's work only a few fragments remain in only one single manuscript (new in Naples).
- cols. 1229-1436: of the Latin grammarian and lexicographer Nonius Marcellus (end 3rd, beginning 4th cent. AD) is added his 'lexicon', called De compendiosa doctrina, in 20 sections or chapters, the first twelve of which deal with language and grammar, the remaining eight with special subjects (navigation, costume, food, arms). The work is a compilation from commentaries on the authors quoted (whom Nonius only knows at second hand) and from existing dictionaries and grammars.

The main work (cols. 1-1033) is preceded by a preface of Aldus Manutius (f. 1v), a preface by Pyrrhus Perotti addressed to Federico I, Duke of Urbino (ff. 2r-v), a 'Brevis commemoratio vitae M. Valerii Martialis' (f. 2v), the extensive Index (ff. (3r-77v), Errata (f. 78r-v), Privilege from Pope Leo X, dated 28 November 1513 and signed by P. Bembo (f. 79r), Privilege from Pope Julius II, dated 27 January 1513 directed to Aldus Manutius (f. 79r-v), and the Privilege from Pope Alexander VI, dated 17 December 1502 (f. 79v), (f. (80) blank). The Cornucopia is concluded by a long letter by Nicolaus Perottus to Francesco Guarnerio (cols. 1033-1049) and a letter of Cornelius Vitellius to Parthenius Bernacensi giving him his commentaries on the Cornucopia (cols.1049-54). (col. 1054: colophon: May 1517; cols. (1056-7): Aldus's printer's device).

Good copy.- (Title soiled, corners of first three leaves restored; last leaf mounted with preservation of printer's device, some lvs. browned).

The Aldine press 151; Bibliotheca Aldina 34; Ahmanson-Murphy II, 132; Renouard p. 81, no. 10 & p. 63, no. 6; STC Italian p. 499; Adams P-721.

Related Subjects: 16th Century Aldus Manutius Greek & Latin Italy Venice

Add to Shopping cart

€ 8.500,00

Prices in EUROS (€), shipping and BTW/VAT extra.

< Back

Terms of sale

All items are offered subject to prior sale. Prices are nett and in (€) EURO. VAT/BTW, postage, and insurance are not included.

Free shipping for orders over € 2,500. EU customers: if applicable, please quote your VAT number when placing orders.

Preferred mode of payment: by credit card through our secure online payment service, which is facilitated by Ogone. If you wish to make other arrangements, please contact us. Terms of sale

E-mail this to a friend

Antiquariaat FORUM B.V.
Tuurdijk 16
3997 MS t Goy-Houten,
The Netherlands

Phone: (+31) (0)30 601 1955
Fax: (+31) (0)30 601 1813
E-mail: info@forumrarebooks.com
Web: http://www.forumrarebooks.com