Plautus's Comoediae (1510)
PLAUTUS, Titus Maccius (c. 254 - 184 BCE)
First illustrated edition of Plautus's Comedies. Parma: Francesco Ugoleto & Ottaviano Saladi, 1510.
“Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” — Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2)
Plautus's Menaechmi was the primary source for Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and he drew upon Plautus as well for The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Scholars believe that Shakespeare read Plautus in the original Latin. See T. W. Baldwin, William Shakspere’s Small Latine and Lesse Greeke (University of Illinois Press, 1944).
The title-page woodcut illustrates the scene in Plautus in which the Menaechmi twins have just discovered each other's identities.
Folio. Title-page illustrated with a large woodcut. Printer's devices on title-page and at the end. Decorated initials throughout. 19th-century ownership's inscription on front fly-leaf. Contemporary manuscript note on the title-page (partly trimmed). Small round wormholes at the beginning and at the end of the volume.
The text of Plautus's plays is accompanied by commentaries by Gianfrancesco Boccardo ("Pylades Brixianus") (d. 1505), Tadio Ugoleto (1448-1513), and Francesco Grapaldi (1464-1515); and poems (Epiphyllides) by Giorgio Anselmo (1459 - 1528). Full title-page transciption: M. Actii Plauti Asinii Comoediae viginti nuper emendatae. & in eas: Pyladae Brixiani lucubrationes. Thadaei Ugoleti: & Grapaldi virorum illustrium scholia. Anselmi Epiphyllides
Blind-stamped half-pigskin binding over wooden boards, spine with five raised bands, pale blue edges.
The Universal Short Title Catalogue lists two copies in the US and five in the UK.
USTC 849856
PLAUTUS, Titus Maccius (c. 254 - 184 BCE)
First illustrated edition of Plautus's Comedies. Parma: Francesco Ugoleto & Ottaviano Saladi, 1510.
“Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” — Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2)
Plautus's Menaechmi was the primary source for Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and he drew upon Plautus as well for The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Scholars believe that Shakespeare read Plautus in the original Latin. See T. W. Baldwin, William Shakspere’s Small Latine and Lesse Greeke (University of Illinois Press, 1944).
The title-page woodcut illustrates the scene in Plautus in which the Menaechmi twins have just discovered each other's identities.
Folio. Title-page illustrated with a large woodcut. Printer's devices on title-page and at the end. Decorated initials throughout. 19th-century ownership's inscription on front fly-leaf. Contemporary manuscript note on the title-page (partly trimmed). Small round wormholes at the beginning and at the end of the volume.
The text of Plautus's plays is accompanied by commentaries by Gianfrancesco Boccardo ("Pylades Brixianus") (d. 1505), Tadio Ugoleto (1448-1513), and Francesco Grapaldi (1464-1515); and poems (Epiphyllides) by Giorgio Anselmo (1459 - 1528). Full title-page transciption: M. Actii Plauti Asinii Comoediae viginti nuper emendatae. & in eas: Pyladae Brixiani lucubrationes. Thadaei Ugoleti: & Grapaldi virorum illustrium scholia. Anselmi Epiphyllides
Blind-stamped half-pigskin binding over wooden boards, spine with five raised bands, pale blue edges.
The Universal Short Title Catalogue lists two copies in the US and five in the UK.
USTC 849856
PLAUTUS, Titus Maccius (c. 254 - 184 BCE)
First illustrated edition of Plautus's Comedies. Parma: Francesco Ugoleto & Ottaviano Saladi, 1510.
“Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” — Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2)
Plautus's Menaechmi was the primary source for Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and he drew upon Plautus as well for The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Scholars believe that Shakespeare read Plautus in the original Latin. See T. W. Baldwin, William Shakspere’s Small Latine and Lesse Greeke (University of Illinois Press, 1944).
The title-page woodcut illustrates the scene in Plautus in which the Menaechmi twins have just discovered each other's identities.
Folio. Title-page illustrated with a large woodcut. Printer's devices on title-page and at the end. Decorated initials throughout. 19th-century ownership's inscription on front fly-leaf. Contemporary manuscript note on the title-page (partly trimmed). Small round wormholes at the beginning and at the end of the volume.
The text of Plautus's plays is accompanied by commentaries by Gianfrancesco Boccardo ("Pylades Brixianus") (d. 1505), Tadio Ugoleto (1448-1513), and Francesco Grapaldi (1464-1515); and poems (Epiphyllides) by Giorgio Anselmo (1459 - 1528). Full title-page transciption: M. Actii Plauti Asinii Comoediae viginti nuper emendatae. & in eas: Pyladae Brixiani lucubrationes. Thadaei Ugoleti: & Grapaldi virorum illustrium scholia. Anselmi Epiphyllides
Blind-stamped half-pigskin binding over wooden boards, spine with five raised bands, pale blue edges.
The Universal Short Title Catalogue lists two copies in the US and five in the UK.
USTC 849856