[Incunable] Claudianus - Opera - 1495

PRIMA EDIZIONE INCUNABILE – THE MYTH OF PROSERPINA – RENAISSANCE BINDING
Rare Venetian incunabulum of the complete works of Claudius Claudian (c. 370–404), printed by Giovanni Tacuino da Trino on June 6, 1495 and edited by the Parmense humanist Taddeo Ugoleto. The edition belongs to the very early printed tradition of the Claudian corpus and reproduces the famous philological recension prepared by Ugoleto for the Parmense edition of 1493.
Of particular importance is the presence of De raptu Proserpinae, Claudian’s most famous and ambitious mythological poem and one of the last great epic works of pagan Latin literature. The poem, left unfinished in three books, narrates the kidnapping of Proserpina by Pluto and Ceres’ grief, blending Virgilian epic tradition with the poetic refinement of late antiquity. Considered one of the peaks of 4th-century Latin poetry, De raptu Proserpinae exerted a deep influence on medieval and Renaissance culture, becoming one of the principal literary sources of the European mythological imagination.
The collection also includes the great political and celebratory poems dedicated to the imperial court of Honorius, works on Stilicho, the Carmina minora, and the other compositions of the poet. The 1495 Venetian edition presents the text in roman type, 40 lines per page, large woodcut initials on a black ground, and a typographic device of Tacuino at the end.

WHY TO BUY
VENETIAN INCUNABULO OF 1495! An authentic book of the Quattrocento, printed in the pioneering phase of the diffusion of Latin classics.

FIRST EDITION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF CLAUDIANO! The great humanistic recension by Taddeo Ugoleto, already librarian of Matthias Corvinus. It contains De Raptu Proserpinae, upon which the myth was founded.

RENAISSANCE BINDING ON WOODEN BOARDS! A rare material testimony of the book’s life in the early centuries after printing.

POET OF LATE ROMANITY! A fundamental source for understanding imperial Roman culture on the eve of the Empire’s transformation.

MARKET VALUE
Incunabula of Latin classics in Venetian print belong to the most sought-after segment of antique book collecting. The interest of this specimen is determined by the combination of edition rarity, the philological importance of Ugoleto’s recension, and especially the preservation of a Renaissance binding on wooden boards.
The presence of an antique binding and the overall authenticity of the volume maintain strong collecting appeal. A realistic price range for this specific exemplar could be indicated at €4,000–€6,000, with greater potential among collectors specialized in incunabula, antique bindings, and Latin classics.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
In-4o. [128] leaves. Latin text in roman type, 40 lines per page. Large woodcut initials, several on a black ground. Title page reproduced on contemporary paper. Type device of Giovanni Tacuino at the end.
Renaissance binding in half calf on wooden boards, decorated with dry-stamped medallions; traces of the two original clasps. Binding shows normal signs of use compatible with age.
Light browning at the lower margin and small marginal defects.
In old books with a long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Claudius Claudianus.
Opera.
Curator: Thaddaeus Ugoletus Parmensis (Taddeo Ugoleto).
Venetiis: impressit Ioannes de Tridino alias Tacuinus, 6 giugno 1495.
INCUNABOLO
Contains:
De raptu Proserpinae libri III;
In Rufinum libri II;
In Eutropium libri II;
De bello Gildonico;
De bello Gothico;
De consulatu Stilichonis libri III;
Panegyrici imperiali;
Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii et Mariae;
Fescennina;
Carmina minora;
Epigrammata;
Gigantomachia.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Claudio Claudianus (c. 370–404) was one of the most important Latin poets of late antiquity. Born probably in Alexandria, he moved to the West where he attained a prestigious position at the court of Emperor Honorius.
His output includes celebratory poems dedicated to emperors, political pieces, wedding songs, and mythological works. De raptu Proserpinae represents one of the last great revivals of pagan classical epic, while the imperial panegyrics are precious sources for understanding the politics and culture of the Western Roman court.
Claudian’s fortune in the Renaissance was extraordinary due to the quality of his Latin, perceived by humanists as a continuation of the great classical poetic tradition. His work thus became a fundamental text for the study of Latin and the rediscovery of late Roman imperial poetry.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE EDITOR
Taddeo Ugoleto (c. 1448–1513) was one of the most important Italian humanists of the Quattrocento. Native of Parma, he was a philologist, translator and librarian at the famous library of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.
His edition of Claudian, originally published in Parma in 1493, marked a fundamental milestone in the text’s history, as it included a new philological arrangement of the work and the first printed appearance of Carmina minora. Giovanni Tacuino took up this important recension in the Venetian printing of 1495.

RARITY
The 1495 Venetian edition is one of the earliest and most important testimonies to Claudian’s typographic fortune. It is catalogued in the main incunabula repertoires: ISTC ic00703000, GW 7061, Goff C-703, IGI 3005 and BMC V 529.
The bibliographical debate concerns mainly the position of the edition in the sequence of Claudian’s first prints; what is certain is its fundamental role as the second impression of Ugoleto’s recension after Parma 1493.

Particularly rare and desirable is the presence of the Renaissance binding on wooden boards with dry-stamped decorations, an element that preserves the authentic look of the quattrocento book. Incunabula of Latin classics in antique bindings constitute one of the most prestigious categories of book collecting.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
This volume represents one of the great outcomes of the meeting between Italian Humanism and the new printing technology. Fifteenth-century scholars did not merely reproduce ancient texts; they sought to recover them through comparison of manuscripts and a rigorous philological revision.
Ugoleto’s recension perfectly testifies to this cultural project: to restore to readers the authentic text of one of the great Latin poets forgotten in the Middle Ages. The Venetian printing house of Tacuino brought this enterprise to the leading European editorial center of the time.

Even physically, the volume preserves the character of a transitional book: roman type, large woodcut initials, wide margins and above all the binding on wooden boards still belong to a book culture that unites medieval and Renaissance elements.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ISTC, ic00703000.
GW, 7061.
Goff, C-703.
Hain-Copinger, 5372.
IGI, 3005.
BMC V, p. 529, IA.24048.
Bod-inc, C-354.
Oates, Catalogue of the Incunabula in the Cambridge University Library.
Proctor, 5436.
Morgan Library & Museum, exemplar of Claudian’s Venetian incunabulum, 1495.