Vergilius, Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1505, contemporary blind stamped pigskin

Vergilius Maro, Publius. Vergilius. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, December 1505

A second copy, on paper, of the exceptionally rare 1505 Aldine edition, the only edition issued by Aldo containing the Carmina Priapeia and the thirteenth-book supplement to the Aeneid, written by Maffeo Vegio (1407–1458).

8vo (165 x 95 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a–z⁸ (-a1–3) A–I⁸ KK⁸ L–P⁸ (-O8–P8): 292 (of 304) foliated leaves (lacking a1–3, O8–P8). Three- four-, and six-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Scattered soiling throughout, a8 loose, a very leaves a bit frayed at fore-edge.)

binding: Contemporary blind stamped pigskin over pasteboards (172 x 115 mm) made from leaves of a sixteenth-century printed book, front cover panelled and tooled in blind, frame of a roll of alternating volute and urn within a circle, floral tool in corners and center of central panel, spine blind-ruled in five compartments, traces of two pairs of ties. (Pigskin of lower cover largely removed, rubbed and soiled, endpapers lost.)

provenance: Jean Pierre Nicod (marchand epicier) de Moudon, 1720, inscription at foot of a4r (i.e., now the first page) and elsewhere — Siméon Daniel Frossard (1684–1763), signature at foot of a8r — E.K. Schreiber, New York. acquisition: Purchased from E.K. Schreiber, New York, 1984. references: UCLA 94; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 96; Edit16 55860; Renouard 50/7; USTC 862686