Virgilio - Opera Virgiliana - 1529

Publius Vergilius Maro

Virgilian Works with Ten Commentaries

Lyon - 1529 -
Jean Crespin

(12), XVII-CCLXVIII, LXXXVIII, (12), XIII-CCCCCC,
(14 of 16)p.
a6 b-q8 r6 aa-ee8 ff4 A6 B-Z8 AA-OO8 PP6 +8(- +2) p.

In folio - 32.5 x 22.5 cm.


The "OPERA VIRGILIANA" is adorned with 202 wonderful and sought-after wood engravings.

An important and particularly rare Lyonese edition, which reproduces the famous Sacon (1517) and Gruninger (1502) editions.
BRUNET V 1282
ADAMS V 474
GRAESSE VI 336
MORTIMER (French) 538
BAUDRIER XII 345

It contains three parts in one volume and two frontispieces.
The work includes the Eclogues, the Georgics and
The Aeneid.
With the important comments of Landino, Badius, and Calderini.

Gruninger reserved all his strength for the Virgilio… which was supervised by Brant, and is rich in splendid images, in which, precisely on the eve of the Renaissance, Virgil is completely medievalized.
A.W. POLLARD

The composition and the illustrations, clearly of an incunabular character, faithfully interpreted in the Latin text, were successfully executed by an anonymous painter and engraver from Strasbourg, and are attributed to the active participation and collaboration of the same Sebastiano Brant (1457-1521), author of the legendary.
Ship of Fools

The quality of the woodcuts elevates them from decorative graphics to artistic graphics, to such an extent that the aforementioned woodcuts are sold individually on the world market.

The first title page printed in red and black, with a splendid historiated wooden frame.
Historiated initials incised in metal, in various sizes.

Collation:
the difficult collation, since it is very rare
The text is presented in full, given the era’s recurring censorship; the following appears:

The Priapeia is not present, censored as often happens, relating to the death of Virgil, consisting of four text leaves (ff5/8), containing a single illustration on ff8v (a tombstone with Virgil's body);
The +2 card, related to the latest issue (+), is not present; it, too, is often censored because it contains a single illustration depicting the corpse of Turnus (killed by Aeneas in combat) enclosed in a coffin.
I'll complete the rest of the text.

In summary, 202 (out of 204) appear in the text.
illustrations, with the two aforementioned illustrations missing due to censorship.

The missing plates, recovered for the collation in the sole library that possesses them (the Bavarian Library), will be reproduced in facsimile and loosely inserted in the work.

Splendid nineteenth-century full leather binding,
with elegant decorations on the spine with five raised bands, as well as a red morocco panel bearing the title in gold.
Very slight abrasions (about 1 cm) only at the upper ends of the zippers.
The binding is nonetheless intact and in excellent condition.

Well-preserved interiors, with the papers fairly fresh, crisp and clean, despite a very light natural browning.
The 202 (of 204) wonderful illustrations, large in size, are complete and well preserved.
The cards XIX and XXIX, relating to the first part of the text (Eclogue I), have been swapped.
The OO3 sheet, torn and repaired in the only missing lower part (text only) with a nineteenth-century paper insertion.
Tear with restoration, without gaps, with traces of old tape at F8 (XCI).
Reinforcement bands on the frontispiece, and on the first and last leaves.
Slight paper wear on the lower outer corner of a few pages, well away from the text,
At the beginning and end of the work, in some cases with a small paper insert (always in the lower corner).
Interleave into the text some blank nineteenth-century sheets for a probable manuscript that was never completed.
Nineteenth-century guards.

Excellent copy, despite a few censored cards, still substantially complete and rare to come by, with 202 exceptional illustrations.