327 - 1502.

1502. BOOK. (POST-INCUNABULUM). LUCANUS:. [BELLUM CIVILE OR PHARSALIA]. Venice: Printed by Aldus, April 1502. Small 8vo. Italic (or Aldine) typeface, except for the capital letters. Unfolioed and unpaginated, 140 leaves. Sign. a8-r8, s4. On folio 'a' there are numerous handwritten annotations interlined within the text. This post-incunabulum features a title page bearing only the inscription "LUCANUS," with the approval mark on the verso. Minuscule letters in the spaces of the capital letters. Handwritten ex-libris on the first folio and, on the last, one in Catalan that reads “es de garau vila estudia[n]t/ de grammatica en olot/ 1628.” Water stains along the margins of the entire volume. Bound in the late 19th century in full parchment, with gold threads on both sides and ribbing. Palau 143153, which notes that it is an Aldine first edition, renowned for being among the clearest and most accurate. Aldus based his edition on the 1493 edition and a manuscript in his possession; this prestigious edition was counterfeited in Lyon in 1503, also in 30-line stanzas. CCPB 164196-4. Although Lucan was born in Córdoba, he lived in Rome from a very early age, and this is the only one of his works that has survived: an epic in ten cantos about the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Lucan was forced to commit suicide following the failure of Piso’s conspiracy against Nero.