Cajus Valerius Catullus in integrum restitutus Ex Manuscripto nuper Romæ reperto, & ex Gallicano, Patavino, Mediolanensi, Romano, Zanchi, Maffei, Scaligeri, Achillis, & Vossii, & aliorum. Critice Joannis Francisci Corradini de Allio [...]

Full title: Cajus Valerius Catullus in integrum restitutus Ex Manuscripto nuper Romæ reperto, & ex Gallicano, Patavino, Mediolanensi, Romano, Zanchi, Maffei, Scaligeri, Achillis, & Vossii, & aliorum. Critice Joannis Francisci Corradini de Allio In interpretes veteres, recentioresque, grammaticos, cronologos, etymologos, lexicographos Cum vita poetæ nondum edita.

Thin folio. pp. [8], 182. Signatures: π4 A-N⁴ O⁸ P-X⁴ Y⁴(-Y4). Bound in original cartonnage, neatly inked title at head of spine, entirely uncut. Imprimatur granted to Agostino Savioli on p. 182.

Rare first edition of a notorious forgery: Corradino’s ‘manuscripto nuper Romae reperto,’ i.e. an imaginary ‘newly-discovered’ codex, from which many new readings were miraculously recovered, was an out-and-out imposture by the learned but shamelessly mendacious Venetian poet and classicist. This famous fraud was detected soon after publication, and as Edward Harwood wrote in 1790 (A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics. London (4th edition), echoed by Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Introduction to the Greek and Latin Classics. London, 1802), ‘the cheat being soon discovered, the rascal only laughed at it’. But Corradino’s genuine editorial work was not always worthless (his emendation in Carmen 39.17 has stood the test of time), and his text was reprinted in smaller format in 1743 (Bib# 4103059/Fr# 1443 in this collection), 1754, and 1792. These latter editions eliminate Corradino’s lengthy commentary, however, although the spurious readings are conveniently assembled in a ‘Specimen Emendationum’ prefixed to each.

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