Dibdin, Thomas Frognall; Spencer, George John [Bearb.]: Bibliotheca Spenceriana: or a descriptive catalogue of the books printed in the fifteenth century, and of many valuable first editions, in the library of George John Earl Spencer (Band 2) (London, 1814) [Cicognara, 4650-2]

35)0

ANCIENT CLASSICS.

459. Symmachus. Epistoe^e Familiares. TVith-
out Name of Printer, Place, or JDate. Quarto.

Editio Princeps. This impression is of considerable rarity. It was
unknown to bibliographers, till Morelli gave a particular and interest-
ing account of it, in the Bibl. Pinell. vol. ii. n°. 3837- Panzer refers
to Denis, p. 672, n°. 5982, where the authority of Weif is quoted,
Whether that and the present be the same impression, I cannot
determine; but it seems certain that no edition of the Epistles of
Symmachus was published in the XVth century—as the editor, Bar-
tholomeus Cynischus, from his prefatory address, appears to have put
forth the publication during the pontificate of Julius II.; which did
not take place till 1508. The very inscription or title to the present
edition may be thought to prove that no anterior one was in existence.
Yet on tlie authority of Juretus, (Miscell. ad Symmach. Epist. addit.
Edit. Paris, 1604, p. 7,) we find that this impressiori loses in intrinsic
worth what it acquires in rarity: ‘ immane quantum corrupta, con-
fusa, truncata’—are the words of Juretus. See the authority first
above quoted.

On the recto of the first leaf, sign. a, the title is thus:

SYMMACHI

SENATORIS ROMANI EPISTOLAE FA.
miliares J 8c elegantissimas nunquam alias ImpressEe:

8c nouiter Per BartholomaBum Cynischum Amerinum
ab inferis pene reuocatte.

Below, after a notice of what Procopius wrote concerning Symmachus,
we read as follows:

In Calce Epistola^ nonulli Tractatus Vtilissimi
Impressi sunt.

The tracts alluded to, are these; but in the present copy (which
was Pinelli’s) no such tracts appear. * De Mensura Astrolabii: De
Statu Mundi: Mensura de Horologio: Ad inveniendum cuiuslibet rei