Silius Italicus, Punica, Lyon, [Jacques Myt? for] Barthélemy Trot, 1514, nineteenth-century English red morocco

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius Asconius. Silii Italici Opus de secundo bello Punico. Lyon: [Jacques Myt? for] Barthélemy Trot, January 1514

The Roman orator’s epic poem on the second Punic war, prepared by the Croatian poet Damianus Benessa (Damjan Beneša) of Dubrovnik (1476-1539, and dedicated to the Florentine soldier Giovanni Battista Soderini (1484-1528), nephew of Piero. This is the first printing of the text in octavo format. The colophon “Impressum Lugduni expensis Bartholomei Troth” is dated January 1514, “regnante diuo Ludouico xii huius nominis rege Francorum” (the King died on 15 January 1515). The UCLA catalogue suggests that Jacques Myt was its printer.

8vo (151 x 88 mm). Italic type, 32 lines plus headline. collation: a-z⁸ AA⁸ BB⁴: 196 leaves. Decorated initials, BB4 a blank. (Very light spotting and toning.)

binding: Nineteenth-century English red morocco (158 x 97 mm), broad gilt line and gilt and blind fillets around sides, anchor device in blind in center, spine gilt, gilt fillet around edges of covers, double gilt fillet border on turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. (Joints lightly rubbed.) Housed in red cloth box.

provenance: Samuel Butler (1774-1839), Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry, his collation note on upper endleaf; his sale, Christie's London, 1-10 June 1840, lot 1730 — Henry G. Bohn, London; (London 1850), p.590 — Horatio William Walpole, 4^th Earl of Orford (1813-1894), ex libris — Sotheby's London, 10-11 June 1895, lot 283; purchased by — J. & J. Leighton, London — Georges Heilbrun, Paris; Catalogue 45 (Paris [1976]), item 28. acquisition: Purchased from Georges Heilbrun, Paris, 1976. references: UCLA 1153; Renouard 313/44; Shaw 59; Baudrier, VIII, 426; Gültlingen, II, p. 107: 22 and p. 108: 27; USTC 123610 (as 1513) / 144346 (as 1514)