DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30697#0098
90
GRAMMARS AND LEXICONS. sNaples; 1475.
same year, and in the same office : see vol. ii. p. 338. Botli these vvorks
will carry the name of Moravus to the highest pitch of typographical
reputation; since greater elegance of ietter and of arrangement, toge-
ther with skilfulness of workmanship, are rarely presented to the eye
of the most experienced collector.
Nor is the rarity of this volume much inferior to its typographical
splendor. Altliough Maittaire notices it, and there were copies in the
Askew and Lomenie collections, yet I find no copy of it, in the Prefond,
Gaignat, Limai'e, Rothelin, La Valliere, Gouttard, Pinelli, Crevenna,
Lamoignon, De Cotte, Boutourlin, or Santander, collections. It has
also escaped tlie notice of Gerdes, Vogt, Engel, Beyer, and Bauer; and
De Bure is entirely indebted to Maittaire’s description of it. Osinont is
brief, but pertinent. He tells us that this first edition is rare, and more
sought after than the Treviso impression of 1477 ; and that ‘ the author
was a Neapolitan gentleman, born at the end of the XVth century.’*
Dict. Typog. vol. i. p. 43G. Consult, Annal. Typog. vol. i. p. 351, note
2; Bibl. Askev. n°. 2294; Inclex Libror. vol. i. p. 367- Seemiller has
no account of it; while Braun describes only the Treviso impression of
1477. But Fossi is particular and interesting; premising that ‘typo-
graphi navitas nil prsetermisit quod elegantiorem reddere editionem
posset, nam rotundis elegantissimis formis solidam albamque papyrum
supposuit.’ Bibl. Magliabech. vol. ii. col. 122. We now proceed to
supply a few former omissions. On the reverse of tlie first leaf is the
interesting address of the author, or editor, to the Emperor Ferdinand;
having this prefix:
IVNIANI MAII PARTHENOPEII . AD INVICTISSIMVM FER
DINANDVM REGEM IN LIBRVM DE PRISCORVM PROPIII
ETATE VERBORVM PROLOGVS FELICITER INCIPIT.
At the Sth line of this address, Maius makes proper mention of the
talents of tlie printers (before alluded to) by whose taste and exertions
this noble volume was executed. His eulogy will be gratifying to the
reader:
-Accedit ad lisec : cp Germani solerti ac
incredibili quoda inuento: nup nouam quanda impri-
mendi ratione inuenerut: prsecipue Mathias morauus uir
summo ingenio sumaq; elegatia in hoc genere impssionis
* He must mean the close of the XlVth or the beginning of the XVth centurv.
GRAMMARS AND LEXICONS. sNaples; 1475.
same year, and in the same office : see vol. ii. p. 338. Botli these vvorks
will carry the name of Moravus to the highest pitch of typographical
reputation; since greater elegance of ietter and of arrangement, toge-
ther with skilfulness of workmanship, are rarely presented to the eye
of the most experienced collector.
Nor is the rarity of this volume much inferior to its typographical
splendor. Altliough Maittaire notices it, and there were copies in the
Askew and Lomenie collections, yet I find no copy of it, in the Prefond,
Gaignat, Limai'e, Rothelin, La Valliere, Gouttard, Pinelli, Crevenna,
Lamoignon, De Cotte, Boutourlin, or Santander, collections. It has
also escaped tlie notice of Gerdes, Vogt, Engel, Beyer, and Bauer; and
De Bure is entirely indebted to Maittaire’s description of it. Osinont is
brief, but pertinent. He tells us that this first edition is rare, and more
sought after than the Treviso impression of 1477 ; and that ‘ the author
was a Neapolitan gentleman, born at the end of the XVth century.’*
Dict. Typog. vol. i. p. 43G. Consult, Annal. Typog. vol. i. p. 351, note
2; Bibl. Askev. n°. 2294; Inclex Libror. vol. i. p. 367- Seemiller has
no account of it; while Braun describes only the Treviso impression of
1477. But Fossi is particular and interesting; premising that ‘typo-
graphi navitas nil prsetermisit quod elegantiorem reddere editionem
posset, nam rotundis elegantissimis formis solidam albamque papyrum
supposuit.’ Bibl. Magliabech. vol. ii. col. 122. We now proceed to
supply a few former omissions. On the reverse of tlie first leaf is the
interesting address of the author, or editor, to the Emperor Ferdinand;
having this prefix:
IVNIANI MAII PARTHENOPEII . AD INVICTISSIMVM FER
DINANDVM REGEM IN LIBRVM DE PRISCORVM PROPIII
ETATE VERBORVM PROLOGVS FELICITER INCIPIT.
At the Sth line of this address, Maius makes proper mention of the
talents of tlie printers (before alluded to) by whose taste and exertions
this noble volume was executed. His eulogy will be gratifying to the
reader:
-Accedit ad lisec : cp Germani solerti ac
incredibili quoda inuento: nup nouam quanda impri-
mendi ratione inuenerut: prsecipue Mathias morauus uir
summo ingenio sumaq; elegatia in hoc genere impssionis
* He must mean the close of the XlVth or the beginning of the XVth centurv.