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Place of creation/publication
France -- Lyon, -- publication place.
Item Details
Call number
273023
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "6. TERENCE, Publius Terentius Afer (c.195/185-c.159? BCE) Comedie: cum famatissimorum oratorum commentis [With commentaries of Donatus and Guido Juvenalis, edited by Jodo-cus Badius Ascensius]. [Lyon], [Impresse Lugduni, per Joannem de La Place M. CCCCC. XX]. [Jean de La Place & Martin Boillon], [8 April, 1520]. Quarto in eights. Collation: a-v8 x4 y8, title printed in red and black and woodcut vignette of Badius presenting book to dedicatee within composite woodcut border of portraits of religious figures, woodcut decorative initials, woodcut printer's device to final verso, woodcut illustrations to the first act of each play. [Adams T315]. Contemporary English blind-stamped panelled calf, spine in compartments and with modern red morocco label and gilt date), covers with arabesque centrepieces, joints split-ting, but holding firm, backstrip with original piece crudely reattached at head and lifting, corners worn, rubbed. TUDOR SCHOOLBOOK The early annotators of this rare edition of Terence offer remarkable evidence of the kind of learning that a Tudor pupil would have received at school, and of how schoolboys of the period studied Terence (and the classics more generally). Subsequent inscriptions trace the book’s evolution from well-used classroom resource to object of antiquarian contemplation. Terence’s ‘Comedies’, besides strongly influencing Chaucer, Dante, and later Shakespeare, were deployed as classroom material in English schools from the 16th century onwards. A great many young scholars thus learned the structure and style of Latin through getting to grips with the works of Terence; and this profusely annotated copy of his Comoediae provides us with a striking illustration of this scholarly engagement. PROVENANCE There are several inscriptions to the title page, giving the researcher a range of threads to follow. Though no specific dates are given, the hands enable us to establish an approximate timeline: starting in the 16th century, we have “Thom[as] Pyke of Kingsley”, “ferdinando Calestone”, and “Edward Witt of Bradford”; late-16th to early-17th-century hands have inscribed the names “Thomas Sutton Gent” (and an annotation to b3v reads: “Thom Sutton is a good fellowe and a knave so beyt”), “Edward Euleston” (as well as a cipher to b1: “EE”, an inscription to x6: “Edward Euleston Clarke of ffrodsham Church” and his name to y1. Ordered from Dean Cooke Rare Books, D9767, 2024-09-13, Cat. Fifth Words & Things, item #6 (Ref: 8235)
