FULGENTIUS, Fabius Planciades.

First edition of this fundamental work on ancient Greek myths, comprising Fulgentius’ fables and a critical commentary by the humanist G.B. Pio. A privilege granted by Ludovicus Maria Sforza is printed on the title verso, giving publishing rights for this and other editions to Johannes Passiranus de Asula, a wealthy scholar who paid for the publication of several ancient works based on mss he owned and which he wanted to circulate for the use of scholars and students. Fulgentius (5th-6th cent.) was a Latin writer probably born and educated in North Africa, historically confused with a contemporary bishop, St Fulgentius. ‘Enarrationes’ includes Fulgentius’ interpretation of 50 fables, surrounded by Pio’s commentary. The protagonists of the fables include Greek and Roman deities, mythological figures (e.g., Tantalus, Acteo, Adonis, Prometheus), literary chatacters (e.g., Thyresias, Ulysses), and talking animals (e.g., the crow). Fulgentius provides a short summary for each, followed by an allegorical intrerpetation, often supported by etymological deductions: e.g., the sirens Ulysses encounters represent pleasure and lasciviousness, but the wise man avoids them. Pio’s commentary added references to Christian exegesis of ancient mythology, including St Augustine. An interesting appendix is Fulgentius’ ‘Expositio sermonum antiquorum’, a concise vocabulary of obsolete or obscure Latin words. ‘Pio pushed the Latin language beyond the linguistic boundaries of Ciceronian golden age and instead delighted in the archaic, the archaizing, and the rare’, thus producing a ‘cutting-edge’ edition (Hartmann, p.21). A thorough early C16 annotator, probably an advanced student with some knowledge of Greek, glossed numerous fables, but most of all he delighted, like Pio, in Fulgentius’ final list of Latin words. His glosses summarised the general meaning of the fables or clarified words or nouns (e.g., Apollos as Sun, Venus as Luxuria), correcting occasional typos.