“denique sit quidvis,
simplex dumtaxat et unum”
860J Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65-8 BCE)
Horatius Flaccus, Quintus: Opera. Comm: (Pseudo-) Acron, Pomponius Porphyrio. Ed: Ludovicus de Strazarolis and Raphael Regius
[Treviso : n.pr. for Michael Manzolus, not before 13 Aug. 1481] Imprint[Venice] . Price $8,500
Folio 30 x 20cm Signatures: A8B10C8D4E8F-G6a–q8r6. (184 leaves) First Edition of Horace with both of his ancient commentators Acron and Porphyrio. Bound in modern marbled gilt calf. A very large and clean copy, many pages have two deckle edges, with marginal indexing on a few signatures in red, others in brown ink.
The history of the printing of editions of Horace and his commentators.
First printed in Venice about 1471-2, then in Milan about 1475, 1476,1477, Venice again 1478 &1479. The next edition was Leipzig 1492, All of these editions are without commentary. Acron’s commentary was Published with out the Opera in Milan in 1479. At Florence in 1482 there is an edition of the Opera with the Landinus commentary, then again in Venice 1483-86. The Edition offered here is the FIRST to have the commentary of Helenius Acron and Pomponius Porphyrion who are both said to have flourished in the third century, these commentaries are revised by Raphael Rgius (ƒl. 1480-1500+) and Ludovicus de Strazarolis which make up the first 50 pages of this book.
The unique charm of Horace’s lyric poetry arises from his combination of the metre and style of the distant past—the world of the Archaic Greek lyric poets—with descriptions of his personal experience and the important moments of Roman life. He creates an intermediate space between the real world and the world of his imagination, populated with fauns, nymphs, and other divinities.
He denounces corrupt morals, praises the integrity of the people of Italy, and shows a ruler who carries on his shoulders the burden of power. Other Augustan themes that appear in Horace’s lyric verse include the idea of the universal character and eternity of Roman political dominion and the affirmation of the continuity of the republican tradition with the Augustan principate. At some stage Augustus offered Horace the post of his private secretary, but the poet declined on the plea of ill health. Not withstanding, Augustus did not resent his refusal, and indeed their relationship became closer.
“Horace’s success as a poet can be measured partly by how difficult he is to imitate and translate and by how many admirers have sought to do both. Readers in the Middle Ages looked to Horace as a moralist and as a literary critic and appreciated the Satires and Epistles more than the more difficult Odes. The enthusiasm of the Italian Renaissance poets Petrarch (14th century), Landinio, and Politian (late 15th century) for the Odes encouraged the popularity of Horace’s lyric. Horace was one of Montaigne’s (16th century) favorite poets. The themes and poetics of both the lyrics and the satires greatly influenced Ben Jonson (late 16th, early 17th century), Robert Herrick, Andrew Marvell, Milton, and Dryden (17th century). The Odescontinued to be springboards for much of both public and private 17th-century English lyrics. Pope was the leading Horatian poet writing in English during the 18th century, the Age of Augustanism, especially imitating Horace’s hexameter poetry, while Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Byron, and Rudyard Kipling were among Horace’s enthusiasts in the 19th century. Horace continued to inspire modern poets, among them Ezra Pound.
While the different genres of his work have specific qualities, they all share in being Horatian, a quality that many have tried to define. In Nietzsche’s view, Horace’s peerless artistry separates him from all other poets. Compared to Horace’s Odes, “All the rest of poetry becomes, in contrast, something too popular—a mere garrulity of feelings” (“What I owe to the ancients,” Twilight of the Idols, 1) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/horace ]
This is a rare edition only 38 copies are known in the world, 14 in Italy; On the place of printing, see P. Scapecchi in Studi Trevisani, 2.4 (Dec. 1985), p.23. Where the Treviso hypothesis is argued against the common Venetian attribution. Suggesting that this is one of three books produced during 1481 by this Venetian press and was printed at the expense of Michael Manzolo in Treviso. Yet neither the printer nor the circumstances of printing of this volume are certain. Assigned in BMC to books printed at Venice for Manzolus, but it ‘may well be Trevisan’ (BMC V p. xxvi)”
“The next group comprises Proctor’s nos. 4750- 52 and was headed by him’ Michele Manzolo, second press’. The three books of which it consists, being no more than seven months apart in time (23 May-r 5 December, 148 I), are here still kept together, but the heading has been modified so as to read: BOOKS PRINTED FOR MICHAEL MANZOLUS, in consequence of Dr. Reichling’s discovery of copies of three editions signed by Manzolus at Treviso in July, 1481, and February and March, 1482 (Appendices, nos. 518, 116r, 1755), the latest date previously connected with his Treviso press being December, 1480. This sequence of dates makes it highly probable that the career of Manzolus at Treviso was continuous from J 476 to the spring of 1482, and it is to be noted that only one of the three Venetian books in question contains his name, and that even this asserts no more than that he paid for its production (Priscian, lB. 21817). Indeed, the earliest member of the group, Dondis’s Aggregator, ‘Venetiis impressa’ on 23 May (lB. 21813), has no necessary connexion with Manzolus at all, beyond the fact that he used its type for one single book, completed at Treviso in the previous December. The Horace’ sine nota’ completed about August (lB. 21815), on the other hand, is connected with Treviso and Padua rather than Venice by the letters of dedication on I band 5Ia and may well be Trevisan; both its types had previously been employed there by Manzolus. Thus the Priscian alone satisfies all requirements in being unquestionably Venetian and unquestionably Manzoline as well.
The information that the roman type of about 112 mm. ~ [P.]) was used by Manzolus at Treviso in July, 1481, is due to the kindness of Dr. M. Fava, the Director of the National Library at Naples. What roman fount occurs in the books of 1482 is not known to
the present cataloguers. •
BOOKS PRINTED FOR MICHAEL MANZOLUS
DATES. The three books catalogued below, with dates ranging from May to December, 14th, appear to be the only Venetian editions that can be connected with Manzolus. See Introduction.’ The Livy of 1483 ascribed to Manzolus at Venice by Panzer (iii. 198. 717) on the authority of Maittaire is presumably due to a misdescription of the genuine Treviso edition of 1480 (Hain 10I34, lB. 28366).
XXVI
https://data.cerl.org/istc/ih00451000
GW 13457; Goff H451; BMC V 315 (IB. 21815); Bod-inc H-203; CIBN H-275.
Located US copies: The Walters Art Museum, Bancroft Library, Yale, Free Library of Philadelphia, Princeton Univ., Brown University, add Pauline Fore Moffitt Library, University of California General Library.
This copy appeared in The Laurence Whitten catalog Sixteen A selection of one Hundred Eighteen books Printed books of the Fifteenth Century 1982 # 49. And Sold to Dr E.J. Marsh, from whose Daughter I purchased it. I have found only one auction record for this edition and this was for a defective copy, lacking the first 50 leaves. Sold by Sotheby Park Bernet October 15 1979
JAMESGRAY2@ME.COM
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