Silius Italicus, De bello Punico, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1523, contemporary Bolognese tan morocco, by Archive Binder

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius Asconius. Silii Italici De bello Punico secundo XVII libri nuper diligentissime castigati. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, July 1523

Only Aldine edition of Silius Italicus, said to be based on the one prepared by Ambrosius Nicander (Ambrosio de Toledo) and published by Filippo Giunta in 1515, although the Aldine editor, Gian Francesco d’Asola, insists it is a new edition. In his dedication to Cardinal Innocenzo Cibo, Gian Francesco announces (folio a2r) that he has added 84 verses that were missing in all other editions, and made other changes and “restorations”. The vita of the poet by Pietro Crinito (first appeared in his De poetis Latinis libri V in 1505) is reprinted (a3r-a4r).

8vo (161 x 98 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-z⁸ A-C⁸ D⁴: 212 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and verso of last leaf, guide letters in initial spaces. (Light dampstaining and soiling, particularly to first and last leaves.)

binding: Contemporary Bolognese tan morocco (164 x 103 mm), by Archive Binder, blind tooled, arabesque border between triple fillets, in panel a rhomb of repeated vine leaf tool between triple fillets, knotwork tool at center, four compartments, diapered in blind, traces of four pairs of ties, blue edges. (Restoration to head and foot of spine and corners, minor worming to pasteboards, upper hinge cracked.)

binding: Leo S. Olschki, booklabel; purchased by — Alexander Neale (d. 1935), inscription "bought at Olschki’s 1894, A Neale" on endleaf — Sotheby's London, 3-4 February 1936, lot 571; purchased by — Gustave David, Cambridge — Monsignor Joseph Michael Gleason (1869-1942) — Lone Mountain Library, San Francisco College for Women, ex libris. acquisition: Purchased from John Howell Books, San Francisco, 1971. references: UCLA 223; Renouard 98/6; Edit16 37706; USTC 856366; Cataldi Palau 90