[Asinus aureus.] Apuleius cum commento Beroaldi & figuris noviter additis.

Venice: [Giovanni Tacuino] Ioannis Taciuni de Tridino, 1516. Very good with faults as described.. Folio. [14 ], 168 leaves. 35 column-wide woodcut vignettes in text, numerous woodcut decorated letters. Signatures: a\8 b\6 A-EE\6. Title in gothic type; main text printed in large roman type, surrounded on three sides by commentary in smaller roman type; marginal notes in small roman type. Index on preliminary leaves. Bound in circa c19 re-used plain vellum, with older manuscript text scraped away, discernable but illegible.

Title page guarded on inner margin, with two paper repairs on verso; manuscript notes in contemporary hand on blank (truncated) verso of b6, about half washed away and offset onto A1r. Light water stain in early quires. A1 repaired on verso. Interlinear manuscript notes in contemporary hand in first quire only. Burn hole in C4. Paper repair to verso of D3, Woodcut on T1 inked over but clearly visible. Restorations on the lower corners of numerous leaves with slight loss of text in some cases.

References: Sander 486; Essling 1324; BM Italian, p.35; Adams A-1375.



Just about 150 years into the Common Era, the African writer Apuleius produced one of the most influential novels ever written, a model for Cervantes, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Salman Rushdie and Angela Carter. The plot surrounds the misfortunes of Lucius, who fumbles around ambitiously with magic spells and accidently turns himself into a donkey. The narrative of Lucius's four-footed travels is interspersed with many other tales, including the story of Cupid and Psyche--one of the first examples in culture of a fairy tale transmitted in written rather than oral form. In the end, Lucius recovers human form through a ritual of religious initiation into the cult of Isis. The book survived, barely, in manuscript (I think it survived due to its pornographic passages, which were probably quite dear to cloistered monks), and was revived in the Renaissance with the commentary of the humanist scholar Filippo Beroaldo, included in this edition of the text, which is only the second printed edition to feature illustrations. (Inventory #: 6684)