AUGURELLUS, JOHANNES AURELIUS (GIOVANNI AURELIO AUGURELLI, OR AUGURELLO).

[POEMATA]. COLOPHON: VENICE, ALDUS MANUTIUS THE ELDER, APRIL 1505.

      8vo. 18th-century vellum with gilt title on spine, red painted edges. Woodcut printer's device (A2) on verso of last leaf. (128) ff., including the blank 2nd leaf (except for its signature aii) and the blank penultimate leaf. Aldus' printer's device on verso of last leaf [Collation: a-q8]. First and only Aldus edition of the collected Latin poems of the Renaissance humanist and alchemist, Johannes Aurelius Augurellus. It was preceded in print only by liber 1-2 of the Carmina, which was printed in Verona in 1491 and dedicated to Pandulfus Malatesta. This Aldine edition is expanded to seven books:- title (only the author's name) on f. a1r; a1v-a2v blank.- Jambicus liber 1-2 with 29, resp. 32 poems (ff. a3r-f8r); - Sermonum Liber 1-2 with 10, resp. 12 metrical sermons (ff. f8v-k4v);- Carminum liber 1-2, with 18, resp. odes (ff. k5r-p5v); and- Libellus iambicus super additus, with 11 carmina (ff. p6r-q6r; q6v: colophon, q7r-q8r: blank, q8v: printer's device). The italic type used to print this and other Aldine octavo volumes was based on the writing examples of Francesco Griffo, calligrapher and type designer for Aldus, especially to be used in his famous pocket editions of classical authors, as well as contemporary humanists and poets (as the present edition). Johannes Aurelius Augurellus (1456-1524) was an Italian humanist scholar, poet and alchemist. Born at Rimini and educated at Padua, he was based mostly at Florence and Venice. After this edition he published the Geronticon liber, and his Chrysopoeia (1515) on the making of gold. Fine copy.- (First and last quire water stained (washed), first leaf (title) damaged but skilfully restored). Ahmanson-Murphy 73;The Aldine Press 89; Renouard p. 49, no. 2 ('belle et rare'); STC Italian p. 61; Adams A 2152; Isaac 12807; Diz. biogr. degli Italiani 4, pp. 578-81; Thorndike V, pp. 534-5; Paranello, Un maestro del quattro-cento, Giov. Aur. Augurello (1905).