Rutilius Namatianus, Claudius. De laudibus urbis, Etruriae, et Italiae.

(Bologna, in aedibus Hieronymi de Benedictis, 1520).

4to. (40) SS. Papered marble spine.

 4,500.00

Editio princeps of the "Itinerarium" ("De Reditu Suo") of the 5th century Roman Gaul poet Rutilius. "On the reverse of the title page is a poem by the editor Giambattista Pio to Pope Leo X, ending on fol. 4v; text begins on 5r. A very rare edition, apparently the first" (cf. Schweiger). The poem in elegiac meter describes a coastal voyage from Rome to Gaul in 416. The solid literary quality of the work, and the flashes of light it throws across a momentous but dark epoch of history, combine to give it exceptional importance among the relics of late Roman literature. Rare, last copy auctioned in 1954.- A well-preserved copy.

References

Edit 16, CNCE 47666. BM-STC Italian 594. Schweiger II.2, 859f.