Ovid - Ovidii Metamorphoseos - 1516

OVID – MAGNIFICENT POST-INCUNABULAR PRINTING – LYON 1516

17 Woodcuts

Rare Lyon edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses with the medieval-humanist commentary by Lactantius Placidi. Printed in 1516 by Jacques Huguetan (Jacques Myt), in-4°, two-color in red and black with a broad ornamental border and a large title woodcut, bound in an old flexible parchment binding.

The text presents Ovid’s fifteen books of the “Metamorphoses,” i.e., the great collection of ancient tales of gods and humans whose common thread is transformation: stories of gods, heroes, nymphs and mortals transformed into animals, plants, stars, or stones. Included are the well-known myths of Daphne and Apollo, Pyramus and Thisbe, Narcissus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Io, Phaethon, Perseus and Andromeda, as well as countless other narratives that have shaped European poetry and art up to the modern era. The accompanying commentary moralizes these tales in the spirit of the time and interprets the pagan myths allegorically—for example as examples of virtue and vice or as symbols of Christian truths—a typical testament to the humanist reading of ancient texts around 1500.

The work is complete and contains a total of 17 woodcuts:

- 1 large title vignette depicting Ovid delivering his work to the emperor

- 1 famous scheme of the world as a sphere with five zones (torrid, two polar, two temperate zones)

- 15 large woodcuts in the text, traditionally attributed to Guillaume II. Leroy, reused in several Lyon Ovid editions of the 1510s/20s.

Condition: Internally generally well preserved for its age, clear typography, beautiful and high-contrast woodcuts; usual signs of use, occasional stains, marginal flaws and small notes possible. The old parchment binding is solid but rubbed, with loss and cracks at corners, edges and capitals, discolorations and minor damage—please refer to the photos for an exact condition assessment. Unrestored, a very authentic library exemplar.

A significant and sought-after Lyon edition of the Ovid Metamorphoses, which is not only notable for its early printing date and the quality of the woodcuts but also for its typi­cal humanist commentary, making it an important document of the Renaissance reception of ancient mythology. Rare on the market – without reserve.