Title: M. TVLLII CICERONIS ORATIONVM PARS I. [Aldine anchor] CORRIGENTE PAVLO MANVTIO, ALDI FILIO. VENETIIS, M.D.XLVI. Fol. 308a, Colophon: VENETIIS, APVD ALDI FILIOS, M.D.XXXXVI.
Octavo. 4 unnumbered preliminary leaves, containing title and preface of Paulus Manutius addressed to Cardinal Benedetto Accolto, 303 numbered leaves of text and a final leaf with register and colophon on the recto and anchor on the verso. Italic letter, 30 lines to the page, five-line spaces with guide-letters left for initials. Renouard, p. 136.
The second edition of the Orations printed by Paulus, vol. I only (II, III wanting), on large paper. Renouard (who knew of no complete copy of the three volumes l.p.) remarks, p. 141, on the too elongated form of most of the Aldine large paper octavos, in which all the increased space is at the bottom. In the present copy it is divided between the bottom and the outer margin, the inner margin and the top having no increase of width—an arrangement well adapted for marginal annotations and perhaps designed for that use. An early owner of this copy has in fact added to the printed title (Orationum Pars I) with a pen the word Commentata, but proceeded no further with his plan than simply to underscore a number of words on the first three pages, leaving the margins untouched.
The most important of the commentaries of Paulus was that on the Orations, completed not long before his death and printed by his son Aldus in 1578-9 in three folio volumes.
From the Syston Park library, with book-plate and the monogram of Sir J. H. Thorold. Bound in red morocco, gilt edges, with Aldine anchor in gold on sides. Leaf 8 × 5 1/4 in.
33. PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. Planisphærium. JORDANUS NEMORANUS. Planisphærium. Venetiis, [apud Paulum Manutium], 1558.
Title: PTOLEMAEI PLANISPHAERIVM. IORDANI PLANISPHAERIVM. FEDERICI COMMANDINI VRBINATIS IN PTOLEMAEI PLANISPHAERIVM COMMENTARIVS. In quo uniuersa Scenographices ratio quam breuissime traditur, ac demonstrationibus confirmatur. [Aldine anchor] VENETIIS, M.D.LVIII.
Quarto (not octavo, as described by Renouard). Part 1. 4 unnumbered preliminary leaves containing title and dedicatory preface of Commandino to Cardinal Rainuccio Farnese, 37 numbered leaves of text (1-25 Ptolemy, 26-37 Jordanus), final blank leaf with anchor on verso. Part 2. 28 numbered leaves of commentary, with separate title, anchor both on title and on verso of last leaf. Text in roman, 25 lines to the page; commentary in italic, 34 lines to the page. Many woodcut diagrams. Both text and commentary are introduced by a seven-line woodcut initial belonging to a mythological series found in other books of Paulus of this period, C picturing Calypso bidding adieu to Ulysses, I, Juno seated on a car drawn by peacocks. The original italic font of Aldus, the so-called Aldino type, which appears to have passed into the possession of the Torresani relatives at about this date, is here replaced by a new font having a perceptibly larger face, though only a slightly larger body (20 lines of the new equalling 21 of the old) and consequently showing less white between the lines. Renouard, p. 173.
In 1554 the subscription assumed the new form apud Paulum Manutium Aldi F., showing that Paulus had acquired his brothers' rights in the press. At the same time he returned to the earlier and simpler form of the anchor with the name Aldus, instead of the Aldi filii and the ornamental border in use since 1546. Sometimes, as in the present volume, the subscription is omitted altogether and the anchor with the name Aldus alone used. Here moreover the place and date appear only on the title-page and the colophon is dropped as no longer useful.