Terentius, Comoediae, Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, June 1521, Italian black goatskin (Ferrara?, or more likely Padua), 1530s

Terentius Afer, Publius. Terentius. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, June 1521

A handsome copy of the second Aldine edition of the comedies of Terence. This edition, like the 1517 Terence and the 1541 vernacular edition, is dedicated to Jean Grolier.

8vo (168 x 100 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a–b⁸ 1–18⁸ 19⁴: 164 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and 19 4v, two- to six-line initial spaces with guide letters, watermark of endleaves: Briquet 10545 (Ferrara, late 1530s); 22 blank leaves at end. (Scattered foxing.)

binding: Italian black goatskin (Ferrara?, or more likely Padua) (172 x 111 mm), 1530s, panelled with a wide gilt French fillet flanked by blind fillets, gilt double volute at inner corners, central roundel formed by two concentric gilt fillets, interior on front cover gilt-lettered TEREN | TIVS with three fleurons, on rear cover gilt-stamped with a flaming pot, spine in eight compartments with three full and four half bands, gilt, respectively with rules and hatches, traces of four pairs of ties, plain endpapers with multiple contemporary flyleaves at front and back, edges gilt and gauffered. (Joints rubbed, rear joint splitting at head.)

acquisition: Purchased from Pierre Berès, Paris, 1989. references: UCLA 203; Adams T316; Cataldi Palau 71; Edit16 37663; Renouard 92/9; USTC 858691