[Lectionum antiquarium libri XVI] Sicuti antiquarum lectionum commentarius concinnarat olim vindex Ceselius, ita nunc eosdem per incuriam interceptos reparavit Lodovico Caelius Rhodiginus. in corporis unam velut molem aggestis primum linguae utriusque floribus, mox advocato ad partes Platone item, ac Platonicis omnibus, necnon Aristotele, ac haeresos ejusdem viris aliis, sed et theologorum plerisque, ac jureconsultorum, ut medicos taceam, e

Venice: in aedibus Aldi, et Andreae soceri, 1516. First edition. Very Good. Folio (31 cm); [40], 862, [6] pages. Title page printed in red. Aldine anchor-and-dolphin device in red on title page, and again in black on verso of final leaf. In contemporary full vellum, titled in manuscript on spine with flourishes. Raised bands on spine. Signs of professional repair to vellum on spine and joints; renewed endleaves. Very occasional blemishes in margins of text; title page a bit dusty with two ink stains, early owner's name in lower margin and early ownership monograms flanking Aldine device. Latin distich in manuscript in 18th-century hand on verso (truncated) of last text leaf. References: Renouard, p.79, #11; Adams, R-450; Ahmanson-Murphy 123.

The anxiety of Humanist scholars over the decay and loss of Latin and Greek culture not only demanded bookhunters combing monasteries for lost texts, but also intense work on recovering fragments of text, wisps of references, second-hand reports or citations from scrolls that were otherwise crumbled away. Poliziano, Perotti, Maffeo Vegio, and Erasmus contributed important volumes to the genre. Ricchieri's awesome encyclopedia is frequently compared to Erasmus's Adagia, but I think the more accurate model is Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights, also a vast, encyclopedic compendium of gathered fragments and overheard lore. Ricchieri, who was one of the most erudite classical scholars of the entire Renaissance, retrieves from his vast reading a wealth of knowledge about Greek and Roman music, mythology, history, literature, prosody, rhetoric, and culture. He dedicated the volume to the great Humanist book collector Jean Grolier Rabelais is said to have depended on it, and its influence is very evident on Ricchieri's star student, Julius Caesar Scaliger.

Renaissance scholars (like Aldus Manutius, who died while this book was in the making) adored this hard-to-define genre of disparate knowledge collected into loose, conversational prose. The word "essay" was still a few decades away, so collections such as this were called "miscellanea" or "sylvae" or, as here, "commentaria." The sixteen books of the Antiquarum lectionum commentaries course through extensive sections on medicine, magic, natural history, music, and gastronomy. The medical chapters include studies of bone structure, ophthalmology, embryology, dentistry, and madness. Book 15 deals with food and wine. (Inventory #: 6478)