167 - JUVENAL and PERSIUS - MARTIAL. Juvenal. Persius. [Satires] - Martial [Epigrams].

JUVENAL and PERSIUS - MARTIAL. Juvenal. Persius. [Satires] - Martial [Epigrams]. Small 8vo (170 x 110 mm), original brown full calfskin covers adorned with a rich cold-stamped design of geometric bands containing three broad vertical scrolls of foliage and flowers, spine with three raised bands, reupholstered in brown calfskin with a title in black calligraphy; head and vertical edges hand-inscribed “Persius / iuvenalis / Martialis.” Traces of two former clasps on the edges of the covers. Latin text set in italic type imitating the typefaces of the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. Cracked rebind spine, tears at the upper joints; front cover and first section very fragile and partially detached; slight water stain along the lower margins of the last leaves. A few foxing spots. A collection of two rare Lyon-printed counterfeits, including the first pirated edition of the Satires published the same year as the Aldine edition. An annotated and richly commented study copy for Martial’s Epigrams. JUVENAL and PERSIUS. Iuuenalis. Persius. [Lyon, Baldassare de Gabiano, c. 1501]. 78 unnumbered folios, collation: A-G⁸ H¹⁰ a⁸ b⁴. The very first Lyon pirated edition of the Aldine edition of August 1501 [Brunet, III, 629]. A few handwritten annotations in the margins of a moral or rhetorical nature. Bound together with: MARTIAL. Martialis [Epigrammata]. [Lyon, Barthélemy Trot], June 10, 1512. Title leaf adorned with the Florentine fleur-de-lis mark printed in red and used by Lyon workshops to sign their pirated editions. 192 unnumbered folios, collation: a-z⁸ &⁸. Second Lyon pirated edition, ending with the colophon dated June 10, 1512, threatening the pirates with damnation: “Whoever you are who in any way opposes this edition, may you be damned and subject to your own illustrious judgment. Do not say that this was not foretold to you. Beware.” The extensive critical apparatus accompanying this edition of Martial reveals the mind of an accomplished humanist. The dense handwritten annotations address, in particular, the circus games from a political and anthropological perspective: the commentator unpacks how the emperor manipulated the people’s passions regarding gladiators, while at the same time cataloging with fascination the exotic animals (elephants, rhinoceroses) and the actual staging of bloody mythological tortures inflicted upon those condemned to death. The last two folios bear two supplementary handwritten notes: on the right, a maxim in Ancient Greek by the Church Father Epiphanius of Salamis; on the left, a commemorative poem in Latin titled “De morte Statii ” (On the Death of Statius), signed with a calligraphic monogram featuring interlaced patterns. The endpapers are also annotated: a moral and philosophical analysis of the laws (Leges) and potions of madness (philtra) based on Juvenal (upper endpapers) and a historical note based on Pliny the Elder on Greek painting (lower endpapers). An excellent annotated Renaissance copy, in a rebound volume that has preserved the original covers.