Priscianus Caesariensis, Opera grammatica, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1527, Cologne brown calf over wooden boards

Priscianus Caesariensis. Prisciani grammatici Caesariensis Libri omnes. De octo partibus orationis XVI: deque earundem constructione II. De duodecim primis Aneidos librorum carminibus. De accentibus. De ponderibus, et mensuris. De praeexercitamentis rhetoricae ex Hermogene. De versibus comicis. Rufini item de metris comicis, et oratorijs numeris. Quibus omnibus ad suum deus restituendis quanta adhibuerimus diligentiam, facile cognosces, si hanc nostram editionem conferes non modo cum caeteris editionibus, sed etiam cumea quae proxime Florentiae ante hanc nostram facta est et omnes in primis locos ubi graecum quod deerat, restituimus in illis enim, sed et in multis alijs tantam differentiam depraehendes inter hanc et illam, ut illud musicorum sis dicturus diapason vale. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1527

Only Aldine edition of the complete works of Priscian (fl. 500 A.D.), including some works now attributed to pseudo-Priscianus. Priscian was the last of the great grammarians of the Roman world.

4to (210 x 128mm). Italic type, 40 lines plus headline. collation: π^{8 2}π⁶ a-z⁸ A-O⁸ P⁶: 316 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and verso of last leaf. (A⁸ bound out of order, staining at beginning and end, fifteenth-century manuscript used as binding support.)

binding: Cologne brown calf over wooden boards (221 x 138 mm), ca. 1530, five vertical rolls, roll across top and bottom of center three vertical rolls, with arms of Cologne, the Empire, and the binder(?), signed "I.W." (Haebler, p. 490, no. 3; Weale German, no. 722), remnants of two clasps, horizontal fore-edge title in ink, spine with five compartments. (Rebacked, endleaves renewed, crack along rear joint of spine, coming away at head, rear clasp restored.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, contemporary inscription "Petrus Hampsaeus (Hampfaeus?)" on title-page — unidentified owner, inscription "Nicholas Halvert Reitani" on title-page, "Pastor of Hillisheim" — unidentified owner, inscription dated 1628 (erased). acquisition: Purchased from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 1970. references: UCLA 243; Renouard 103/2; Edit16 47512; USTC 851384; for the binding Einbanddatenbank w002795 (Johann Willich the Elder)