Author: AULUS GELLIUS.
Title: Avli Gellii Noctium Atticarum Libri Undevginti.
Description: Venetiis in Aedibus Aldi, et Andreae Soceri Mense Septembir. M.D.XV. 1515. FIRST AND ONLY ALDINE EDITION. 8vo, 159 x 91 mms., foliated (with several mistakes), [36], 96, 121, 98, 123, 100, 125, 102, 127, 104 - 289 [290 - 337], collating AA-DD8 [DD8v blank], a-z8, A-T8, V4. with Aldine anchor on title-page and last page, all pages ruled in red, handsomely bound by Francois Bozerian le jeune (1765 - 1826), in straight-grain blue morocco, with interlinking gilt rings forming border on both covers, spine richly gilt in compartments to a floral motif with author's and publisher's name on spine and binder's gilt signature at bottom of spine, all edges gilt, pink silk end-papers with gilt dentelles; some very slight wear to front joint, but generally a fine copy. The title-page is very lightly stained at the inner margin and might be a cancel, though I don't see a stub; "duernionem" is spelled correctly in the colophon. The Latin scholar and grammarian Aulus Gellius (c. 125 – after 180 AD) composed his only known work, Attic Nights, during long nights in Attica, and he later continued his record when he moved to Rome. The work is really more of a commonplace book. The Loeb editors and translators note that it consists of "interesting notes covering philosophy, history, biography, all sorts of antiquities, points of law, literary criticism, and lexicographic matters, explanations of old words and questions of grammar. The work is valuable because of its many excerpts from other authors whose works are lost; and because of its evidence for people's manners and occupations. Some at least of the dramatic settings may be genuine occasions." Neil Bernstein in his translation of parts of the work rendered Gellius' remark on Socrates and his wife as follows: "Because I endure such a woman at home," said Socrates, "and am trained and accustomed to her, once I am out of the house I can endure other peoples' arrogance and insult more easily." The first edition was published in Rome in 1469 by Giovanni Andrea Bussi, bishop-designate of Aleria. See Leofranc Holford-Strevens: Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Scholar and his Achievement (2003).

Keywords: anecdotes History prose


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