Vergilius, Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1514, eighteenth-century vellum

Vergilius Maro, Publius. Virgilius. Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, October 1514

The rare 1514 Virgil. It is dedicated by Aldo to Pietro Bembo, who was at the time secretary to Pope Leo X. In his prefatory note Aldo sings the praises of his editor Andrea Navagero, the Italian poet, orator and botanist, who he believes has produced an accurate text worthy of the dedicatee. Aldo also shows his gratitude to Pietro Bembo's father Bernardo, who had recently lent him several manuscripts. The present edition is the first issue of two, both dated 1514, although Renouard postulates that the second issue was not printed before 1519. He calls both issues 'très rares'.

 8vo (153 x 92 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-z⁸ A-E⁸: 224 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and final verso (UCLA A5), errata. (Title lightly soiled with repairs to blank margins, repair to inner margin of E1, light worming to first and last few leaves, the final leaf soiled, wormed, and laid down, otherwise a few scattered stains.)

binding: Eighteenth-century vellum (157 x 97 mm), red morocco label, marbled endpapers, marbled edges. (Covers lightly wormed, front endpapers wormed and scuffed, spine lightly stained.)

provenance: Conte Bertoldo Pellegrini, inscription "...questo edizione era posseduta in Verona dal L.F. (?) Bertoldo Pellegrini, nella sua compiuta raccolta degli Autori Latini d’Aldina edizione" — unidentified owner(s), notes from Mattaire on endleaf, and "Per questo libro valutato 120" (18^th century). acquisition: Purchased from E.K. Schreiber, New York, 1981. references: UCLA 127; Renouard 68/8; Edit16 55882; USTC 862703