Beschreibung:

APULEIUS MADAURENSIS, Lucius (born ca.123 A.D.). Opera . Edited by Joannes Andreae de Buxiis (1417-1475), bishop of Aleria. -HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. Asclepius . -ALBINUS Platonicus (fl. 2nd century A.D.). Epitoma disciplinarum Platonis . Translated by Petrus Balbus (d.1479). Rome: [Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz], 28 February 1469. Median 2° (316 x 213mm). Collation: [1 6 2-14 10 15-16 1 2 17 10 18 8 ] (1/1r dedicatory letter by Bussi to Pope Paul II, 1/6r tabula, 1/6v blank, 2/1r Metamorphoses , 9/7r Florida , 10/6v Apologia , 13/6r De deo Socratis , 14/3r De dogmate Platonis , 14/8r De philosophia , 15/5r De mundo , 15/11v Hermes Trismegistus Asclepius , 16/12r dedicatory letter by Petrus Balbus to Nicolaus de Cusa, 17/1r Albinus Epitoma , 18/8 blank). 177 (of 178, without final blank 18/8) leaves. 38 lines. Types: 2:115R, 115Gk. Illuminated initials by a Roman artist, with white-vine decoration opening most works and both dedications, those on fos. 1 and 7 extending to form partial border (just shaved at top), major (7-8 lines) and minor (2 lines) initials supplied alternately in red, or blue with red penwork, headings supplied in red. (Very light foxing to first leaf, a few minor marginal tears repaired.) Gold-tooled green morocco over pasteboard, border of fillets with Botfield arms on covers, spine tooled in compartments, wide gilt turn-ins, gilt edges, (spine slightly faded), by Charles Lewis Provenance : contemporary cardinal's arms (azure, an arm gules and an arm argent holding a cross crosslet fitched with a cloud rayonée in chief, with cardinal's hat and mantling crest) painted in lower margin of first page; armorial library stamp erased; bought by Botfied from Payne & Foss in 1830 for #42.0.0 (P. & F. Acquisitions, p.4). FIRST EDITION of all texts. Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz, the first printers in Italy who had moved their press from Subiaco to Rome in 1467, this volume of Apuleius attests to the centrality of platonic thought in the Renaissance ('Apuleius the Platonist', as Augustine referred to him); as such, it fits in with the humanist publishing programme followed by these printers. The works of Apuleius, of which only the Metamorphoses , Apologia , and Florida are genuine, are concerned with magic, transformation and antiquity. They are here supplemented by treatises on platonic philosophy, the Asclepius , and the Epitoma of Albinus. Apuleius was considered, as stated here, to be the translator of the Asclepius , the only philosophical text attributed to Hermes which was known throughout the Middle Ages. Although later shown to be the work of a group of third- to fourth-century anonymous authors, the works which were attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were embraced by the Renaissance as of great antiquity and, therefore, of great authority on philosophical and theological matters. The Epitoma was a handbook of platonic philosophy designed for the general reader. Due to a misreading, the author was cited as Alcinous in some manuscripts and early printed editions. Here it appears in a new Latin translation dedicated to the humanist bishop Nicolaus of Cusa. According to the chief editor of the press, Giovanni Andrea de Bussi, in 1472, 275 copies of this work were printed. The Greek type, used here to print a song of Orpheus contained in the De mundo and quotations and names in that work and in the Asclepius was the second ("also of great beauty" -- Proctor) used by Sweynheym and Pannartz; the first was used only at Subiaco. HC *1314; GW 2301; BMC IV, 6 (IB. 17115-6); Goff A-934; Pellechet 923; IGI 769; Flodr, Apuleius Mad. 1; Botfield 68-78