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TERENTIUS Afer, Publius. Comoediae sex, tum ex Don

TERENTIUS Afer, Publius. Comoediae sex, tum ex Donati commentariis, tum ex optimorum, praesertim veterum, exemplarium collatione, diligentius quam unquam antehac, emendatae ... Aelii Donati ... commentarii ... Calphurnii in tertiam comoediam doctissima interpretatio. ... Eorum, quae in comme[n]tariis sparsim annotata sunt, index amplissimus.

Paris: Robert Estienne, July 1529. Folio (300 x 205 mm). Wood-cut printer's device on title. Contemporary panelled calf over pasteboard, covers elaborately panelled in blind, spine in seven compartments with raised bands. Condition: old stain from title to C3 affecting text area, some other old staining to blank margins, final leaf torn and backed onto the following blank free endpaper; repairs and consoldtaion to binding, corner repaired, re-backed with the majority of the original spine laid down, sections of pastedowns removed to partially reveal the early manuscripts formming part of the covers. Provenance: P. Catinat (early signature); two inscriptions, one noting the purchase of the book in 1650 and partially deleting an earlier inscription dated 1648; 19th-century ink stamp to title of a library/collection in Dijon. first estienne folio edition: "According to Harles, ... [this edition] is the rarest, and in great request" (Dibdin). The new recension of the commentaries of Donatus, and the lengthy index make this a particularly valuable edition of a a work which became a 16th-century bestseller: numerous editions, a number by Estienne, were to appear throughout the following decades (see Schreiber, pp. 51-53). Adams T322; BM STC French S. 416; Dibdin II, p.470; Renouard I, p.30, no.16; Schweiger p. 1057.