Margarita poetica

Venice: Johannes Rubeus, 1493. Hardcover. Very Good. Venice: Johannes Rubeus, 1 January 1493. Folio (315 x 225mm). 174 leaves. Collation: a (7); b-x (8); tabula (7). 61 lines, Roman type, capital spaces unrubricated. Contemporary notation and hand-drawn manicules indicating the text throughout, many are whimsically flourished or holding objects. Final blank on watermarked paper of flying swan in pearled medallion. Content are in three parts, the first is a revised and augmented version with excerpts taken from classical authors and Italian humanists and formulas for letter-writing. The second part consists of an anthology of prose writers (including Cicero, Lactantius, Macrobuius, Plutarchus, etc.). The third part contains selections from Petrarch, dramatic poets (Terence, Seneca, Plautus), and a variety of humanist speeches by Renaissance copyists, letter-writers and philosophers, including Johannes Lamola, Poggius Florentinus, Galeatius Sforza and the author himself. Contents: Leaf [2a], title: Oratorum omnium Poetarum: Hystoricorum: ac Philosophor[um] elegantes dicta: per Clarissimum iurum Albertum de Eiib in unum collecta faeliciter incipiunt. Leaves [120a]-[123b] contain: Liber augustalis imperatorum Francisci Petrarchae (Benvenuto Rambaldi’s continuation of Petrarch’s Epitome vitarum virorum illustrium); Leaves [125a]-[129b]: Francisci Petrarchae de aduersa fortuna Remedia; Leaves [129b]- [132b]: Francisci Petrarchae: de prospera fortuna remedia. Leaf [168b] (Colophon): Su[m]ma Orator[um] omniu[m]: Poetaru[m]: Historicor[um]: ac Philosophor[um] Autoritates in unu[m] collectae per clarissimu[m] uirum Albertum de Eyb Vtriusq[ue] iuris doctor[a]e eximiu[m]: quae Margarita poetica dicitur: faeliciter fin[a]e adepta est. M.CCCCLXXXXIII. Kal[a]e. Ianuarii. Leaves [169a]-[175b]: Tabula. totius ... op[ro]is. 18th-century three-quarter sheep over marbled pasteboards, spine gilt with title, silk book mark; (wanting first and final original blank, a few wormholes at the beginning and end, some just affecting text; faint dampstaining in the upper margins, few creased corners, corner torn of m2 and marginal tear m8, very slightly spotted and soiled in places). From the Collection of Baron de Eyb (his heraldic, lithographed ex-libris, dated 1899, to front pastedown), an evident descendant of the author. Eyb is the name of an old Franconian noble family which is named after Eyb in Ansbach. It is likely this volume was owned by a contemporary with familial ties to the author and stayed within the family until the early 20th century. Eighth Edition of this important work of German Humanism. Albrecht von Eyb, one of the earliest German Humanists, was born in 1420 near Ansbach. Eyb went to Italy and devoted himself to humanistic study at the Universities of Pavia and Bologna. He returned to Germany in 1451, having been appointed Canon at Eichstätt and Bamberg. From 1452 to 1459 he was again a student at Bologna, gaining the degree of doctor in 1459. That same year, Eyb wrote Margarita poetica in honor of his mother, Margarete von Wolmershausen. It was first published in Nuremberg by Johann Senschschmidt in 1472 and reprinted at least 13 times by 1503. It remained a popular manual of classical rhetoric by its three distinct focuses: letter-writing, model orations and florilegia (compilation of excerpts). The work is known for its vivid expression found within selected passages from classical and contemporary authors, from Cicero to Petrarch. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls it, “a textbook of humanistic rhetoric, consisting of a collection of passages in prose and verse from Latin authors, to which are added specimens of humanistic eloquence.” Of only about 40 in existence, OCLC locates 13 copies of this edition in US collections. BMC V 417; Goff E177; GW 9536; HC 6824*; Madsen 1547; Schmitt I 4233; Sheppard 4121; Proctor, 5132