PEROTTO, Niccolò

An excellent copy of the third Aldine edition of this monumental collection of grammars, including one of the most important Renaissance Latin dictionaries, by Niccolo Perroto, together with three influential classical grammars by Varro, Festus and Nonius Marcellus, dedicated to the condottiere Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino. Although the date 1513 is shown on the final colophon as if it was the second Aldine edition, this is in reality a reprint carried out in May 1517, as the colophon at the end of Perotti’s work indicates (col 1064 [i.e. 1054]). The largest section of the work is taken up by Perroti’s Cornucopia. Written as a commentary on book I of Martial, it includes a discussion on almost every word of Martial’s text, becoming a standard work of reference on the Latin language. “a massive encyclopedia of the classical world. Every verse, indeed every word of Martial’s text was a hook on which Perotti hung a densely woven tissue of linguistic, historical and cultural knowledge” Brian Ogilvie, ‘The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe.” The work was revised and expanded by Perotto’s son Pyrrhus and the first edition was published in Venice by in 1489; the first Aldine in 1499. The text has been carefully numbered by page and by line so that the index can be precisely keyed, marking the inception of a modern scholarly system of reference. Niccolò Perotto (1429-1480) was an Italian cleric and humanist, born and died in Sassoferrato. From 1451 to 1453 he taught rhetoric and poetry at the University of Bologna. In 1452 he was made Poet Laureate by the Emperor Frederick III, in acknowledgment of his speech of welcome to the city. He was the papal secretary from 1455 and archbishop of Siponto in 1458. Although his later career was as a papal governor, he continued his scholarly pursuits, editing the works of the Roman writers Pliny and Martial. Apart from his Cornucopia, he wrote a Latin school grammar, Rudimenta Grammatices (Pannartz and Sweynheim 1473), one of the earliest and most popular Renaissance Latin grammars, which attempted to exclude many words and constructions of medieval origin. To the Cornucopia are added the three most important classical texts on the grammar and etymology of the Latin language. “Varro’s treatise is the earliest extant work on Grammar. This great work which was finished before Cicero’s death in 43 BC, owes much to the Stoic teaching of Aelius Stilo. .. The first three of the surviving books are on Etymology, book V being on names of places, VI on terms denoting time and VII on poetic expressions.” Sandys I p. 179. Sextus Pompeius Festus’ epitome in 21 books of the encyclopedic treatise ‘De verborum significatione’ of Valerius Flaccus is added next. Festus gives the etymology as well as the meaning of many words, and his work throws considerable light on the Latin language, mythology and antiquities of ancient Rome. The work ends with Nonius Marcellus’s compendia. A lovely fresh copy of these important texts.