The Badius Bookroom

Date:
20th century
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/52/141
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Badius Bookroom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE BADIUS BOCKROOM. ARETING, Ieon. (Bruni). libro Intitulata Aquila Volante. Venice, P. de Quarengiis, 6 March, 1506. £7. 10. © Folio, orig. limp vellum. 128 ff. Roman type. 5 large woodcut initials and very numerous smaller ones, historiated and floriated. stories. Unknown to Brunet, Deschamps, Panzer, Ebert, Graesse, Argellati, Haym, Melzi, Mazzuechelli and Cornell ‘i ske Catalogue; no copy in Brit. Mus., the earliest 16th century, there being 1531. Another edition, also published in 1506 by T. de Ragazonibus at Venice is well-known, though rare. It is incorrect to say that the 5th book was added to the 1543 edition; it is in the present and other early editions. Melzi, I, &3 has a long and interesting note on this beok in which doubt is thrown as to whether Aretino is the actual compiler or whether it is taken from the Ficre d'Itelia, Ii Tesoro ei Brunetto Latini and others: the colcephon states the book was ‘composed’ by Aretino “to the praise and glory of the happy memory of Julius Caesar. The verses on the title page show that the titie refers to the Imperial Eagle of Caesar, and they end with an appeal to the intending buyer not to be miserly, for “the more pence and friend- ship it costs you the more you will hold it dear. Chapters 32 & 33 of Bk. 1 give a very interesting explanation and refutation of the Minotaur fable and the flight of Daedalus; A very early case of a rationalising explanation of a Greek legend (ef. that given by Palaephatus.) It also states that Daedalus made birds of silver and filled them with spirit and thus made them fiy. = The contents of this book is profusely illustrated throughout by appropriate quotations from Dante. Very good and clean copy, in a fine Roman type. MUMS. notes on title page re Inquisition and of ownership, and on blank verse of last leaf, all short, dated and of some interest. The initials in this book are all very fine and beautiful and of varied design; as many as 6 occur on one page. A most desirable book.
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