Pontano, Opera, Venice, Aldus, 1513, later vellum

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano

Opera. Urania, sive de stellis libri quinque. Meteororum liber unus. De hortis Hesperidum libri duo... (Venice: in the house of Aldus and Andrea Torresani, 1513)

8vo (161 x 95mm.), woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank), italic text, with a leaf of early manuscript verse bound at end (headed "Ex Pagella manu Pontani scripta") old vellum, red speckled edges, later slipcase, small washed stamps on title-page (resulting in slight staining), first few leaves lightly foxed

A corrected reprint of the 1505 Aldine edition, retaining the prefaces from Aldus to Giovanni Collaurio and Suardino Suardi, both of whom were friends of Pontano.

The verses at the end are from Pontano's dialogue Aegidius, at the beginning of which two travellers arrive in Naples from Rome and read this inscription on the house of Pontano: "Future heir, successor, master of this house, feel neither shame nor grief for its former master, who built himself this home...".

LITERATURE

Edit16 37456; Renouard 63/7; UCLA 109