[Noctes Atticae].
GELLIUS, (Aulus).
Accipite studiosi omnes Auli Gellii noctes micantissimas: In quibus vigilias & somnum pacatissime reponatis. Nihil enim in latinis obstrepet inconcinnum. In Graecis minus. Quippe quae nunq[uam] antehac fuerint accuratius emendata. [With the commentary of 1509
BMSTC (Italian), p. 294. Adams G339.
Bound with:
SOLINUS (Caius Julius). [Polyhistor]. Ioannis Camertis Minoritani, Artium, et Sacrae Theologiae Doctoris, in C. Iulii Solini Polyistora Ennarationes. Additis eiusdem Camertis Index. [With the commentary of Johann Camers, i.e. Giovanni Ricuzzi Velline].
Title within a woodcut border comprised of a pair of helmeted heads within elaborate wreaths at the head, a pair of columns at the sides and a block of two putti supporting a shield with the monogram of Lucas Alantsee within elaborate foliage at the foot; Lucas Alantsee's bookseller's device after the errata leaf and Ioannes Singrenius's printer's device at the end; a few woodcut initials. Lacking (as often) the important (and valuable) folding woodcut world map which is the first to name America.
[16], 336, [4] (errata & colophon leaves)], [30], [2 (blank)] pp.
[Colophon on F4r:] Viennae Austriae, per Ioanne[m] Singreniu[m], impensis honesti Lucae Alantse, civis, & Bibliopolae Viennensis, 1520.
BMSTC (German), p. 818. Adams S1396.
Bound together circa 1520 in contemporary London calf over wooden boards, the covers with a panel running over to the edges formed by a blind roll of birds, bees, dogs and flowers [Oldham 555 or AN.b (2)] and a pineapple ornament [Oldham 959 or A.(1)] (used circa 1482-1520); spine with four bands outlined with string and blind fillets, a late-seventeenth-century morocco label in the second panel; brass edge pieces at the corners and two brass of brass catches [the clasps missing] (upper joint repaired and starting to crack again at the head; lower joint rubbed and cracked at the bands with one repaired; a few wormholes or small defects on the covers).
One or two marginal wormholes at the front, dampstain affecting the lower of corner of two leaves, a few smudges and creases, otherwise good, fresh copies in a handsome contemporary binding.
Earle Havens's catalogue of a recent remarkable exhibition at the Beinecke Library, Yale University, has drawn attention to the important rôle of commonplace books, the antecdents of the encyclopedia, "from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century". Both the Attic Nights of the 2nd. century A.D. and the Polyhistor of the 3rd. century A.D. Solinus were originally kept by their authors, or more correctly compilers, as commonplace books. Aulus Gellius began his collection of notes on grammar, geography, history, philosophy and any other interesting things he came across in his reading and conversation to while away the long Winter evenings in Athens where he was studying philosophy. The 3rd. century grammarian and compiler Solinus based his Collections of memorable things on the geography, history, religions and natural history of the world on his reading, especially the Natural History of Pliny and the Geography of Pomponius Mela. His work was extensively revised in the sixth century and became known as the Polyhistor. Both are important for the extracts they preserve from otherwise lost classical texts.
"Recently, scholars have begun to focus upon the historical articulation of this classical notion of the commonplaces, and upon commonplace books in general, during the revival of ancient Greek and Latin literature in the Renaissance. In that era of cultural 'rebirth', prominent humanists carefully and conscientiously collected and studied the silver words of the ancients in order to demonstrate, to celebrate, and, ultimately, to emulate the philosophical wisdom of Plato and Aristotle, and the 'pure' Latin style of Cicero. ...
"Over the course of their venerable history, the use and usefulness of commonplace books to readers and writers did not wane. ... Owing in large part to this long tradition and to their characteristic flexibility, commonplace books contributed fundamentally to Western culture, Indeed, they constituted the foundation of the early production of the standard works of reference that are taken quite for granted in the present century. Encyclopedias, books of quotations, concordances, anthologies, thesauruses, indexes and bibliographies, dictionaries, even the recent, bestselling New York Public Library Desk Reference, have all owed something to the time-honoured tradition of compiling and organizing words, facts, and text excerpts in commonplace books, from antiquity to the present day." (Earle Havens).
Provenance: 1: Thomas Scicilius, with ink inscription "liber thome Scicilij et amicoru[m] eius" on the blank shield at the foot of the woodcut border of the Aulus Gellius, an early example in England of the "et amicorum" ("and his friends") ownership formula made famous by Jean Grolier. He may probably be identified with the Thomas Cecil, Ceycyll, Cycell or Ciclelye, from Calne, Wiltshire, fellow of New College, Oxford 1534-50, who proceeded, as "SYCYLLE", B.A. on 16 July 1538 and M.A. on 18 April 1542. The name, originally Welsh, was then pronounced, as correctly now, as "Sissil" and the spelling "Scicillius" may be to give a soft "S" sound to the first "C". Early ink note on the flyleaf "Misericordias Domini In eternum Cantabo" ["I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever", Psalm 89/8] and on the front pastedown is a medical recipe for the bladder "A handful and a half of hyssope a [...] of anysed ... in a quart of wyght wyne". There are a large number of pencil marks in the list of contents to the Aulus Gellius but almost no annotation. 2: Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725), Oxford bibliophile, with his characteristic ink collation note "C. & P./ in red on the front pastedown and again in brown ink with "Scicilius" [noting the provenance] on the front flyleaf. 3: Henry Berkeley, with inscription on the front flyleaf ""E Libris Henr: Berkeley 1741".
Literature: Havens (Earle), Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century, (New Haven, 2001).
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