1533 Marcus Valerius Martialis (Martial) Epigrammaton (Epigrams). Gilt page edges gauffered. Printed by Simon de Colines in Paris.

A 1533 printing (by Simon de Colines) of Martial's Epigrams (Epigrammaton); this copy with a (likely) later French sprinkled-calf binding with gauffered gilt edges to the text block.

About the Epigrammaton (edited from Wikipedia)
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement.

Marcus Valerius Martialis (circa 50-100 AD), was a Roman poet from Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirizes city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticizes his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. He is considered to be the creator of the modern epigram.

Martial's keen curiosity and power of observation are manifested in his epigrams. The enduring literary interest of Martial's epigrams arises as much from their literary quality as from the colorful references to human life that they contain. Martial's epigrams bring to life the spectacle and brutality of daily life in imperial Rome, with which he was intimately connected.


From Martial, for example, we have a glimpse of living conditions in the city of Rome:

I live in a little cell, with a window that won't even close,

In which Boreas himself would not want to live.

Book VIII, No. 14. 5–6.

Martial also pours scorn on the doctors of his day:

I felt a little ill and called Dr. Symmachus.

Well, you came, Symmachus, but you brought 100 medical students with you.

One hundred ice-cold hands poked and jabbed me.

I didn't have a fever, Symmachus, when I called you –but now I do.


Book V, No. 9

About the Printer (edited from Wikipedia) -

Simon de Colines (c. 1480 – 1546) was a Parisian printer and one of the first printers of the French Renaissance. He was active in Paris as a printer and worked exclusively for the University of Paris from 1520 to 1546. In addition to his work as a printer, Colines worked as an editor, publisher, and punchcutter.   Over the course of his lifetime, he published over 700 separate editions (almost 4% of books published in 16th-century Paris).   Colines used elegant roman and italic types and a Greek type, with accents, that were superior to their predecessors. These are now called French old-style, a style that remained popular for over 200 years and revived in the early 20th century.

Reference -

Worldcat records several copies with several reference numbers - 901969946, 1014779466; copies at Library and Info Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience.

USTC records three copies with record number 181441; one copy in a private French collection, at the British Library and at Wadham College.

On the 1490 column of Brunet's Manual du Libraire (vol. 3, 1862) he states that the 1533 edition of Colines is Colines' second printing (the first in 1528).

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 12 x 7 x 2 cm. In 8to.

Sprinkled calf. Spine with four raised bands; four compartments with a central gilt floret surrounded by gilt vines, one compartment with the title in gilt on red morocco. All edges gilt and gauffered. Title page with decorative frame. Lightly ruled in red (and faded) throughout.

Pages - 1-207, [3]

Collation - a-z8, A-C8

Condition -

See pictures. Some wear to binding. Joints cracked, top and bottom of spine chipped, corners lightly bumped silk ribbon with no attachment. Free end of endpaper (FEP) missing at both ends. Binder's blank endpapers, at both ends, with many bookseller and ex-libris marks.

Text block toned throughout (towards edges) with occasional page edge chip, thumb, rust spot, etc. A little separation between binder's endpapers and text block. Title page with fore-edge chip and trimmed tight at the fore-edge touching printed frame. Ink spot at bottom margin of 54-56. Light ink stain on 60-61. Light moisture mark at last several leaves.