Hadriani Valesii Histor. Regii et Ioh. Christophori Wagenseilii De cena Trimalcionis nuper sub Petronii nomine vulgata dissertationes

8vo. f. [1] (blank), pp. 36, 30, ff. [2] (blank). Printer's device on title page. Head- and tailpieces, engraved initials.

The first edition of two dissertations attacking the genuineness of the ‘Cena Trimalchionis’ portion of the Satyricon of Petronius, recently discovered in the ‘Trau Manuscript’ (‘Trimalchio’s Feast’), and today universally accepted as genuine. 

There are two copies in this collection. The present  one is in contemporary vellum and has blind stamps of the theological Institute of Connecticut. It is the first state of the text of sigs. A4-A8, in Wagenseil’s dissertation. The second copy is bound with Martin’s edition of the Fragmentum (Paris, 1664, see Bib# 4102886/Fr# 364 in this collection). It is the second state, with A4-A8 heavily revised, perhaps in response to criticism, reducing the length from four leaves to three, but preserving the original pagination by doubling up numbers on leaf A7r (‘13’ and ‘14’) and A7v (‘15’ and ‘16’). This textual and collational distinction appears not to have been noticed by bibliographers and cataloguers.

See S. Gaselee, ‘Bibliography of Petronius’ in: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 10 (1909), pp. 141-233, number 162.

Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.