Bibliographical notes on the English translation of Polydore Vergil's work, 'De inventoribus rerum' / communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by John Ferguson.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliographical notes on the English translation of Polydore Vergil's work, 'De inventoribus rerum' / communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    18/38 (page 16)
    their wish to disseminate good books, contrived to persuade him to undertake a translation of Yergil’s work. The translation has this title:— Di | Polidoro | Yirgilio Da Vrbino [ De Gli Inventori | Delle Cose. | Libri Otto. | Tradotti Per M. Francesco | Baldelli, | Con due Tauole, vna de’ Capitoli, e l’altra | delle cofe piu notabili. | Nuouamente ftampati con licenza de’ Superior!. | In Fiorenza, | Per Filippo, e Iacopo Giunti, e Fratelli. | m.d.lxxxvii. | Con priuilegio di Sua Altezza Sereniilima & altri Principi. | It is a quarto, and contains pages [24] 426 [2 Begistro] 46 [2 Begistro repeated]. This, I suppose, is the first edition. Baldelli’s letter to Sig. Ottavio Imperiali is dated, Adi x. di Gennaio, m.d. lxxxvii. Di Cortona, and there is no mention of any earlier edition. It is singular that Baldelli, seven-and-thirty years after translating Yergil’s dialogues (§ 13), should have undertaken a version of a book which had been in circulation throughout Europe for upwards of eighty years, knowing besides, as he must have done, that Lauro’s Italian version had appeared forty years earlier. The explanation, if any be required, may possibly be found in the fact that in 1585 the unsold copies of the expurgated edition of 1576 were foisted as a new edition upon the public, who had their attention thus once more directed to the work. It then became convenient to forget or ignore Lauro’s unregenerate version, and Baldelli, repeating the insinuation that Yergil’s ortho- doxy had been vitiated by heretic interpolations, made a new translation from the expurgated original, and had it sanctioned by the authorities as appears on the title-page. This edition was republished in 1592, bub I have not seen it. So late as 1680 it came out again in a handsome quarto at Brescia. In this edition, however, Baldelli’s letter has been omitted, so that the book is shorn of an important part of its own history. There are thus three editions each of the two Italian versions, and so far as I know there were none after 1680. It should be mentioned that both the Italian translations embrace the whole eight books. I have not seen the Spanish translation. 29. Lastly, the English editions, of which there are nine.