A 1484 edition of the (mostly hexametric) verse satires by Persius Flaccus (AD 34-62), the sixth known edition with the extensive prose commentary by Bartolomeo Fonzio. Persius satirized Stoic ethics, literary style, their asking the gods for material gain, and their views of life goals and liberty, all in the light of the decadence and corruption of Nero's court at Rome. Though influenced by the satires of Lucilius and Horace, Persius's calm and seriously educational critique gives his work a subtle depth often lacking in his predecessors. He left his satires unfinished at his premature death and they were put into order by his friends Cornutus and Bassus. Ulrich Han in Rome printed the first edition in 1470 and many followed quickly, but the most important were those with Fonzio's commentaries,.
Bartolomeo Fonzio (1446/49-1513), born in Etruria, was a Florentine humanist and professor of poetry and rhetoric at the university there. He greatly admired Persius's work but found that its obscurities limited its reception, so he set out to clarify it for the reader.
With a couple contemporary pen decorations and a pointing hand in brown ink beside the main text. With some marginal stains, mostly in the last quire, which also shows restorations in the gutter margin, but otherwise in good condition and with wide margins (2-5.5 cm). BMC VII, p. 1139; Bod-Inc P140; Goff P346; GW M31375; ISTC ip00346000.