Information
Venice, Filippo di Pietro, [before May 6, due to the reference to the colophon of Doge Andrea Vendramin] 1478. In 2°. 294 x 195 mm. Text in Roman character in two columns of 36 lines for each page, without preface and arguments, edited by C. Lucio Lelio of whom an epigram can be read on the final page before the colophon, SPLENDID BINDING IN LONG-GRAIN RED MOROCCAN WITH GOLD FRAMES ON THE PLATES, PERFORATIONS, GOLD TITLE ON THE SMOOTH SPINE , the white paper of the first fascicle replaced, abrasions on the upper margin of the first leaf with a restoration patch that does not affect the text, marginal damp stains on the first and last leaves, notes by a contemporary hand.
Provenance: Count Boutoulin; Seymour Kirkup; Baron Landau. This is the copy cited by de Batines and Mambelli himself, n.9 pg.17. Pencil annotations on the first flyleaf, with a brief account of the history of the specimen.
Specialist Notes
We know little about the present edition from a strictly philological point of view; Mambelli defines it as "very incorrect", but the final epigram by the unknown Lucius Laelius attests the first mention of corrections and amendments to the text of the poem, as Paolo Trovato has underlined in Con ogni diligenza corretto , pp. 20-21. The "labored final verses" of Lelio deserve to be reread: "Even my age and my less longevity are worth amending so much, the only author of this language, eternal honor, the first painter of the city of God. Yet my innate affection and great desire have kept my heart ready for so long to restore its value that had been forgotten through great cowardice. Not only have I raised this body but another much more serious and of greater esteem to interpret it for others as it is meant. So if in some place this work is not polished so well as it awaits the truth, unbridled love, I excuse how hard it has been kept".
Goff D26; HCR 5944; Pell 4111; IBE 281; IGI 357; Walsh 1663; Bod-inc D-009; Sheppard 3443; Pr 4270; BMC V 220; GW 7963