1515 ALDUS LUCRETIUS De Rerum Natura PHILOSOPHY Physics

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[Early Printing - Italy - Venice - Aldo Manuzio] [Greek and Latin Classics] [Philosophy - Epicureanism] [History of Science] [Cosmology] [Physics - Atomism] Printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius (Aldo Manuzio), January 1515. Second Aldine edition. Text in the original Latin, printed in the famous Aldine italic. A large, genuine example, in excellent state of preservation, of Aldus's final publication, which went to print one month before his death. This is the desirable 2nd Aldine edition of Lucretius classic cosmological epic poem, the first in the celebrated Aldine octavo "pocket" format. This 1515 edition is well known to be far superior textually to the first Aldine edition of 1500 in quarto. This edition is also the first to be edited by the Neolatin poet Andrea Navagero, praised by Aldus in his preface. Navagero was Aldus's principal Latin editor for the period 1512-15 and one of the ablest latinists of his. " The second Aldine edition, of which Naugerius was the editor, is greatly preferable, in a critical point of view, to its precursor ." (Dibdin) De rerum natura of Titus Lucretius Carus, the first century B.C. Roman natural philosopher, expounds, in the form of an epic poem, the cosmological theories of his teacher, the Greek philosopher Epicurus, demonstrating the workings of his model of a universe based on the atom as the fundamental particle. In the preface Aldus notes that although much of the philosophy expounded by Lucretius is repugnant to a believing Christian, t is much of value in his work and he should tfore be read anyway. Aldus, now sixty-five, would die within a month of publication of this, his last production. Thus his complaint concluding the preface becomes the more poignant: "But, if it weren't for the bad health with which I have been rather harshly afflicted for some months now, quite a bit would have been added which would testify to all of our diligence, and would have made [the text] of Lucretius itself fuller." From all accounts, Aldus simply wore himself out (as the eulogy in the 1515 edition of Lactantius states). This 1515 Lucretius is one of the celebrated Aldine editions of the ancient classics in the handy small 8vo format. Founded by Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) in 1494 in Venice, the Aldine Press is famous The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. The press was the first to issue the classics in octavo format. Their were intended as affordable and convenient volumes in handy compact format, usually bound in vellum, that gentlemen of leisure could easily transport in a pocket or a satchel. The press issued 127 editions during the lifetime of Aldus. The press was continued after Aldus's death in 1515 by his wife and her father, Andrea Torresano of Asola, until his son Paolo took over. The famous Aldine anchor device is present on the title-page and on verso of the final leaf. "The Aldine family come at the head of the Venetian printers, not only in the extreme beauty of their typographical work, but also in the matter of Marks" (W. Roberts, Printers' Marks, London, 1893, p. 218-220. See also Davies, Devices of the Early Printers, no.236). Aldus dedicated this edition to Alberto III Pio, Prince of Carpi (1475-1530), his sponsor, protector and faithful friend during Aldus' entire career. Alberto Pio was one of the most intellectually distinguished humanist princes of the Renaissance and an intimate of the Medici popes. Pio was raised under the guardianship of his paternal uncle Marco and his maternal uncle, the great Florentine humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. They supervised his education and engaged Aldus Manutius as his tutor. Dedicating this 1515 Lucretius - his 'swann song' - to Pio was a sort of final tribute by Aldus to the man who was the first to believed in the cultural and entrepreneurial possibilities of the Aldus typographical and scholarly endevour. Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BC -... read more

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