AUSONIUS. [with] SCALIGER, Joseph.

.The most attractive contemporary binding à fond d or was probably produced in Lyon. It reprises the style of Henry Davis Gift, 106 (on a 1570 Lyonnaise Gryphius), and Belin Cat., 194. LVD. D.S.P. was probably Louis (c.1579-1654), last Marquis de Saint-Priest of the original line. Gentleman of the King s Chamber, he attended scholarly academies, was appointed royal diplomat, and resided in Saint-Priest castle near Lyon (Gauer, 17).

.An exquisite pocket student book comprising the first Gryphe edition of Ausonius s complete works, edited by Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), and the first edition of Scaliger s related commentary. Though bibliographies record them as a single work, Scaliger s commentary being mentioned in the first t-p, they intended to also be sold separately. Ausonius (c.310-95) was a renowned poet and rhetoric teacher in Burdigala (Bordeaux); among his pupils was the future Pauline, Bishop of Nola. He was also tutor to the son of Emperor Valentinian I, and converted to Christianity late in life. A perfect tool for a Renaissance schoolboy, this collection includes Latin epigrams, occasional poetry addressed to acquaintances (including contemporary rhetoric and grammar professors), four-verse poems on the Roman Emperors, ancient philosophers and cities in Gallia, idyllia, eclogues and epistles, with a final section of Greek epigrams on moral and mythological subject. Scaliger s major editorial contribution to the Ausonian corpus is epitomized in the Lectiones . It is a detailed commentary with copious emendations to the received text published by Étienne Charpin in 1558, who updated the 1472 editio princeps on the basis of a new ms. recently rediscovered in Lyon. Whilst preparing his edition, Scaliger, then in France, corresponded with Élie Vinet, author of a 1551 edition. They had access to the ms., owned by the humanist Jacques Cujas, and reassessed several of Charpin s editorial choices. Both Vinet and Scaliger are rightly regarded by modern editors as major contributors to the text of Ausonius; between them they provide some 300 useful emendations (Green, 357-8). A lovely copy.