‘To whom do I present this delightful new book?’
Catullus, Carmina I.1.1.
Catullus 1502 dedication.
Worth’s copy of the 1502 Catullus includes a dedication to Marino Sanudo (1466-1536), a Venetian patrician and historian. As may be seen in this image, Marino is here referred to as the son of Benedicto Sanudo but this was a mistake, for Sanudo’s father was in fact Leonardo Sanudo. Aldus quickly corrected this embarrassing error in subsequent states of the work. It proved to be one of a number of errors in the text – and even the rather spare title did not prove immune. The image below shows one of the authors’ names was incorrectly printed on the title as ‘PROPETIUS’, rather than ‘Propertius’ (this was corrected on the last page of the work). The inclusion of both errors indicates that Worth’s copy is an example of the first state of this edition. It also gives us some indication of the speed at which Aldus was working in 1502 when he was producing thousands of copies of classical editions.
Catullus title-page.
Sources
Fletcher, Harry George, New Aldine Studies. Documentary Essays on the Life and Work of Aldus Manutius (San Francisco: Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc. 1988).
Lowry, Martin (1979) The World of Aldus Manutius. Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice (Oxford: Blackwell).
Renouard, A. (1834 and 1991), Annales de L’Imprimerie des Alde our Histoire des trios Manuce et de leurs éditions. Troisième Édition. (Delaware : Oak Knoll Books.).