Ovidius Naso, Fasti, Tristia, and Epistulae ex Ponto, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, (January 1502–) February 1503, printed on vellum

Ovidius Naso, Publius. Publii Ouidii Nasonis, Quae hoc in libello continentur. Fastorum. Libri VI. De tristibus. Libri V. De Ponto. Libri IIII. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, (January 1502–) February 1503

Printed on vellum: the first Aldine edition of Ovid's Fasti and other writings, the third and last volume in Aldo's series of Ovid's works, the first two of which appeared in October 1502 (Metamorphoses) and December 1502 (Heroides). This volume of Ovid "includes poetry written during his exile, composed in a futile attempt to curry favor with the Emperor Augustus and secure his return to Rome" (Grolier/Aldus).

This is evidently the first copy on vellum to appear at auction since the Powis Castle sale more than a century ago (Sotheby's London, 20–22 March 1923, lot 396). Van Praet records only one other copy printed on vellum in addition to the Harley-Meerman-Powis copy, the three-volume Pisani family set, now Spencer-Rylands (Catalogue de livres imprimés sur vélin, qui se trouvent dans des Bibliothèques tant publiques que particulières, II:119, IV:119).

8vo (152 x 95 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: aaa–kkk⁸ lll⁶ mmm–sss⁸ ttt⁶ uuu–zzz⁸ AAA–CCC⁸: 204 leaves (lll6 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, lll5v, and CCC8v, two-, three-, and four-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Title and last page a little soiled, small tear or flaw to vellum repaired on first leaf, lll5 stained at top, AAA5 with two small holes in fore-edge margin, occasional natural and typical discoloration of vellum.)

binding: Seventeenth-century vellum over pasteboards (158 x 102 mm), covers with double gilt-ruled frame with miters at corners, plain paper endpapers, gilt edges, traces of two pairs of ties. (A bit soiled, some small wormholes, joints splitting, foot of spine chipped with loss.)

provenance: Unidentified owner (partially effaced bookplate, "Bib … ca R … a," illustrating a house and garden, signed S.D.E.35, probably twentieth-century) — Jean Fürstenberg (1890–1982), morocco label; included in Musée d'art et d'histoire, Collection Jean Furstenberg: 3 mai–5 juin 1966 (Geneva, 1966), no. 123 ("Rare exemple d'une impression aldine sur vélin") and with paper label from that exhibition. acquisition: Purchased from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, 1981 (not traced in Breslauer catalogues). references: UCLA 68; Adams O425; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 72; Edit16 48412; Grolier/Aldus 39; Renouard 38/14; USTC 845661; Adams O-425