Ricchieri, antiquarum lectionum commentarios, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1516, original limp vellum

Ricchieri, Lodovico. Sicuti antiquarum lectionum commentarios concinnarat olim vindex ceselius, ita nunc eosdem per incuriam interceptos reparauit Lodouicus Caelius Rhodiginus, in corporis vnam velut molem aggestis primum linguae vtriusque floribus, mox aduocato ad partes Platone item, ac Platonicis omnibus, necnon Aristotele, ac haereseos eiusdem viris aliis, sed et theologorum plerisque, ac iureconsultorum, vt medicos taceam, et mathesin professos … Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, February 1516

First edition of these monumental and erudite Renaissance commentaries, spanning sixteen books.

Caelius Rhodiginus was the humanist pseudonym of Ludovico Ricchieri (1469–1525), a distinguished professor of Latin and Greek in Rovigo. In 1511, he relocated to Milan to assume the lectureship of Demetrios Chalcondyles, under the patronage of Jean Grolier, the city's treasurer.

Dedicated to Grolier, Antiquae Lectiones also pays tribute to Aldo Manuzio, recently deceased. The work comprises a vast collection of essays and notes on Latin and Greek antiquity, encompassing literature, philology, science, philosophy, history, anthropology, and morality. Notably, Book V, Chapters XX–XXIX, contains insightful discussions on ancient music.

Its encyclopedic structure, somewhat disordered, was modeled on Gellius’s Noctes Atticae and Erasmus’s Adagia. Despite early accusations of plagiarism, the book was widely praised and frequently reprinted until 1666—even Erasmus ultimately came to appreciate Ricchieri’s scholarship.

Folio (313 x 211 mm). Roman type, 54 lines plus headline. collation: AA-CC⁸ DD⁴ EE⁸ FF⁴ a-z⁸ &⁸ r⁸ Rx⁸ aa-zz⁸ &&⁸ rr⁸ RxRx⁸ A⁸ B¹⁰: 474 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device in red to title-page and to verso of last leaf, guide letters in initial spaces. (A few leaves browned, including Cc2 and Cc7, intermittent light spotting.)

binding: Original limp vellum (French?) (328 x 222 mm), yapp edges along fore-edge, traces of four pairs of chamois ties, binding support from fourteenth-century rubricated manuscript, fleur-de-lis watermark (possibly Briquet 6794). (Worn, with some tears to vellum.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, inscription "Ottavii Guglielmi" at top of upper inside cover, perhaps Ottavio Guglielmi, Capitano del Popolo della città di Siena (1598) — unidentified owner, inscription "Corvibi filius" (?) at top of lower inside cover. acquisition: Purchased from Heritage Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1987. references: UCLA 143; Renouard 79/11; Edit16 47593; USTC 852400