Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius Aurelius integer ... Ascensianorum multo diligenter restitutus (Ed. Joannes Riviusd & J. Badius Ascensius). Paris, J. Badius Ascensius, Nonis Novembris 1519. fol. 5 unnum. Fol., 100 rom. fol. Fol. (without the last white leaf). With a title border composed of four sticks and a large printer's mark on the title, 11 (partly repeated) woodcuts and woodcut with world map. - Bound: Budeus, Guilelmus. De Asse et partibus eius Libri quinque. Ebenda, 1524. 8 unnum. Leaf, 193 roman foliated leaves, 1 leaf. With a woodcut border cut from a stick and numerous large initials on shot ground. Newly bound in a richly blind-stamped 16th century pigskin cover. To a) Adams M-74. Pettegree & Walsby 78535. Moreau, Répertoire II, p. 547, no. 2133. Second edition of Macrobius printed by Badius, with a new introduction dated 1519; compared to the first edition of 1515, enlarged by "De die natali" by Censorinus. The volume begins with the "Saturnalia", a dialog divided into seven books, which purports to depict a conversation between distinguished Romans at a Saturnalia banquet in the house of Vettius Praetextatus in the year 384. This is followed by the commentary on the "Somnium Scipionis" from Cicero's "De republica", a work often read in the Middle Ages. - "De die natali" by Censorinus, a Greek author of the 3rd century AD, is his only surviving work; it "includes some valuable information, often from good sources, on various topics more or less connected with the occasion: embryology and birth, numerology, music, climacteric years, chronology, astrology, and other matters bearing on an individual's life; the work was first printed in Bologna in 1497 .; Badius first issued it in 1514 as part of a very rare collection of Opuscula" (cat. Fred Schreiber 31, no. 64). The very beautiful Venetian-style woodcuts show, among other things, three astronomers observing the stars and two musicians: a lute player and an organist. Re b) Adams B-3102, Pettegree & Walsby, French Books III & IV, 59361, third edition published by Badius. "The aim of this substantial work, which uses a law of the Digest as a point of departure, is to rediscover the value of all measures and monies of antiquity, and to make an inventory of the wealth of the ancients. But it also attempts to make the reader reflect on the wealth of the modern age, its social injustices, and the abuses of the church. Above all, it suggests a set of values ranging for material goods and profane knowledge to sacred study and divine wisdom. The philosophical import of the work mostly derives from a crowning epilogue of a hundred pages. De Asse is thus universal in its appeal. In order to dedicate this work to his best friend, François Deloynes, Budé concluded with a dialogue between them and the role of philosophers at court and in the market-place. After the publication of De Asse, Budé was celebrated as the principal French humanist, equal to Erasmus, or indeed superior" (Bietenholz/Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 214f.). Not a very good copy. Traces of moisture and stains throughout the volume. - The last two leaves of Macrobius have been added with loss of text in the margins.