Show & Tell: Opera Ausonii Nuper Reperta

The word “incunabula” refers to books printed before 1500 and in the earliest period of European typography since the invention of Gutenberg’s movable type printing press in the 1450s.

Published in Parma in 1499, our copy of Ausonius’ Opera Ausonii Nuper Reperta fits firmly in this most exciting category.

Ausonius was “a Latin poet and rhetorician interesting chiefly for his preoccupation with the provincial scene of his native Gaul… An incorrigible trifler and a victim of what he called “the poetic itch,” Ausonius left few works of any consequence. A characteristic piece of trifling is the Technopaegnion (“A Game of Art”), a set of poems in which each line ends in a monosyllable. His longest poem, on the Mosella (Moselle) River, has flashes of an almost Wordsworthian response to nature, with descriptions of the changing scenery as the river moves through the country.” – Britannica.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus; Ugoleto, Taddeo. Opera Ausonii Nuper Reperta. Parma [Italy]: Angelum Ugoletum [Angelus Ugoletus], 1499. 86 leaves: 8 unnumbered and 78 numbered.

Full leather, over boards carved in relief, with embossed decoration. Gilt lettering to spine. Page edges stained red. 3- and 6-line initial spaces. Woodcut printer’s device at end. Text block trimmed, with some loss to pagination numerals. Manuscript notes to title page, with some handwriting practice; marginal notes. A couple of pages show repairs, some old tide marks to margins.

 

USTC 997367. OCLC 645166714. Item #0100178

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