Catullus, [Lyon, Gabiano, ca. 1502-3], contemporary Italian morocco

Catullus, Gaius Valerius, Albius Tibullus and Sextus Propertius. Catullus. Tibullus. Propetius [sic]. [Lyon: Baldazare de Gabiano? 1502-1503?]

The Lyon anonymous reprint is line for line, copying even the Aldine edition’s misspelling of Propertius on the title. However, Avanzi’s dedicatory letter to Sanudo was not reprinted, the corresponding pages being left blank. In Aldo’s edition, A5v, in the poem "In Asinium", Catullus used a Greek word for keepsake, mνημοσυνον, and it was so set in Greek. The Lyon shop had no Greek font, and so the compositor left a blank space where it could be supplied by hand.

The combination of a similar knotwork tool and small fleurons is also found on bindings by the Agnese Binder (Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, fig.82).

8vo (158 x 93 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-E⁸ F⁴ [2]A-D⁸ [2]E⁴ G-P⁸ (F3-4 and P7 blank): 152 leaves. (Some worming and slight browning at beginning and end.)

binding: Contemporary Italian morocco with blind-tooled knotwork border (160 x 97 mm), small gilt knotwork centerpiece with gilt corner fleurons, stubs from four pairs of green silk ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Binding somewhat worn and wormed, corners and head of spine defective.)

acquisition: Purchased from Librairie Benoît Forgeot, Paris, 2009. references: UCLA 1106; Renouard 307/7; D.J. Shaw, "The Lyons counterfeit of Aldus's italic type", in The Italian Book 1465-1800 (1993), appendix, no.9