[Post Incunable] - Ovidio - Operae - 1523

POST INCUNABLE - OVID’S WORLD OF LOVE: HEROIDES, AMORES AND THE ART OF SEDUCTION
Rare sixteenth-century edition of the amorous works of Publius Ovidius Naso, dated 1523. The volume collects not only the famous Heroides, but also the Amores, the Ars Amatoria, the Remedia Amoris and other compositions of the Ovidian tradition. An fascinating journey through desire, seduction, abandonment, jealousy and love pain, expressed through some of the most famous pages of Latin poetry. The Heroides give voice to Penelope, Dido, Medea and the other female protagonists of myth, while the subsequent works develop a true poetics of love.

ABSTRACT
The collection presents one of the most fascinating nuclei of Ovid’s production, centered on love in its multiple forms. In the Heroides celebrated heroines of Greek and Roman myth write imaginary letters to the men who loved, abandoned or betrayed them: Penelope addresses Ulysses, Dido Aeneas, Medea Jason, and other female figures acquire a personal and psychologically complex voice. To this poetic universe are added the Amores, dedicated to elegiac passion, the Ars Amatoria, a sophisticated didactic poem on the art of seduction, and the Remedia Amoris, in which the poet instead suggests how to free oneself from amorous suffering. The photographs also show texts such as the Consolatio ad Liviam, the De Nuce and other compositions traditionally transmitted within Renaissance Ovidian collections.

WHY TO BUY
A volume particularly interesting for its antiquity, being dated 1523, and for the presence in the same copy of numerous fundamental texts of Latin erotic-elegiac poetry. The collectible charm lies in the combination of a universal author, a first-century printing, humanistic typography in roman type and numerous large ornate woodcut initials. The Heroides, the Amores and the Ars Amatoria are among Ovid’s most sought-after works for their enormous weight in Western culture and for the influence exerted on European love literature.

MARKET VALUE
For a first-Century edition of Ovid, value depends decisively on the exact identification of the edition, on completeness, on the presence of the title page and of the complete editorial specimen, as well as on the condition of the paper. A complete copy, correctly identified and with its own title page could reach significantly higher values. In this case, a prudent antiquarian price range for this specific copy can be indicatively placed between €400 and €700.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Brown half-leather binding with pastedowns covered in paper and leather corners. Gilt decorated spine with raised bands, title and date in gold; normal wear and signs of handling to the binding, with wear to the casings, corners and margins. Colored edges. Copy without title page. Ends on page 420: 6 unnumbered pages are missing (421–426). Internally traces of old dampness mainly in the lower margin of the leaves, with irregular halos and some marginal portions affected by insertions or paper restorations; occasional annotations, underlinings and ancient handwritten marks are also present. Some leaves show small marginal tears and warping. Numerous ornate woodcut initials enrich the typographic apparatus. In old books, with a long history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description. This listing contains AI Visualizations. Refer to the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the item. The images are an integral part of the description. Pp. (2); 418; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Operae – collection of amorous works including Heroides, Amores or Elegiarum sive Amorum libri, De Arte Amandi, De Remedio Amoris and other compositions attributed to or traditionally associated with the Ovidian corpus, among which Ad Liviam, De Nuce and minor texts.
[Basel, Heinrich Petri, 1523]
Publius Ovidius Naso.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The editorial fortune of Ovid during the Renaissance was extraordinary. His amorous works offered humanists a perfect model of Latin elegance, rhetorical refinement and analysis of passions. In the Heroides Ovidius undertakes a particularly innovative literary operation: he transforms the great women of myth into protagonists of their own story, entrusting them with imaginary letters in which love, betrayal, memory and abandonment are observed from a female perspective. In the Amores the poet develops the language of erotic elegy, while in the Ars Amatoria he sarcastically transforms love into a discipline to be learned through rules and strategies. The Remedia Amoris constitute almost the counterpoint to the preceding work, proposing remedies to break a passion that has become painful. This ability to analyze sentimental dynamics made Ovid one of the most read, imitated and translated classical authors in modern Europe.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Publius Ovidius Naso was born in Sulmona in 43 BCE and died in exile at Tomi, on the Black Sea, probably in 17 or 18 CE. Coming from a wealthy family, he received a refined rhetorical education in Rome but soon left public life to devote himself to poetry. He became one of the central figures of Augustan-age literature thanks to the Amores, the Heroides, the Ars Amatoria and especially the Metamorphoses. In 8 CE Augustus suddenly decreed his exile to Tomi for reasons that the poet summarized in the famous formula carmen et error, probably linked as much to his poetic production as to a political or personal circumstance never fully clarified. The works of exile, including the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponti, attest to the last years of his life away from Rome.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Ovid’s amorous works enjoyed extraordinary circulation from the very beginnings of printing and were published repeatedly from the late Quattrocento to the early Cinquecento. Particularly influential were the Venetian editions of Aldus Manutius, which helped establish a compact editorial form of Ovid’s minor works including Heroides, Amores, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris and other texts. A famous Aldine edition of 1502 gathered precisely Heroides, Amores, De Arte Amandi, De Remedio Amoris, Ad Liviam, De Nuce and other compositions; similar collections were subsequently reissued by numerous Italian and European printers. Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa. The absence of the title page in the present copy requires caution: the date 1523 on the binding is not sufficient, by itself, to definitively attribute the impression to a specific typesetter or printing location.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
The volume’s structure belongs to the Renaissance editorial tradition of collections of Ovid’s minor and amorous works. Historical bibliographies record editions that jointly include Heroides, three books of Amores, three books of Ars Amatoria, two books of Remedia Amoris and other Ovidian or pseudo-Ovidian texts; this configuration is documented, among other things, in the Aldine and Giunta editions of the early sixteenth century. Catalog BnF For the present copy, however, the absence of the title page prevents a definitive bibliographic identification of the 1523 edition based on the available photographs alone.