PONTANUS, Joannes Jovianus (Giovanni PONTANO).

First Aldus edition of the collected works of one of the most important Italian humanists Opera. Urania, sive de Stellis libri quinque. Meteororum liber unus. De Hortus Hesperidum libri duo. Lepidina sive postorales pompae septem. Item Meliseus. Maeon Acon. Hendeca syllaborum libri duo. Tumulorum liber unus. Neniae duodecim. Epigrammata duodecim. Quae vero in tot opere habeantur in Indice, qui in calce est, licet videre.

      Venice, Aldus Manutius, (May-August 1505). - 2 parts in 1 vol. 8vo. Modern speckled brown calf in 16th-century style, frontcover with Aldus' printer's device stamped in gold, ribbed spine lettered in gilt. Title and final page with Aldus' woodcut printer's device. (242) lvs. Collation: a-z8 (part 1, May 1505); 2a-2f8, 2g10 (part 2, August 1505). Second edition, published posthumously, of Pontanus' collected works. The first edition was published in Venice, during his lifetime, in 1501.Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503) is an Italian poet, historian, and statesman, who used also the Latin form Jovianus Pontanus. He was protected by Alfonso of Aragón, who made him his chancellor of Naples (1447) and later his secretary. He was one of the leading statesmen of Naples, serving the Aragonese kings as tutor, secretary, councillor and diplomat. Pontano personally surrendered Naples to the French invaders. A noted humanist, he discovered Donatus' commentary on Vergil. His verse, in Latin, is notable for its grace, harmony, variety of subject matter, and natural expression of sentiment, reflecting the diversity of interests and knowledge of the Renaissance. His supple and easy Latin style is considered, with that of Politian, to be the best of Renaissance Italy. He wrote Latin as if it were his native tongue, with unusual flexibility, smoothness, and humour. Pontano studied language and literature in Perugia. From 1447 to 1495 he served the Aragonese kings of Naples as adviser, military secretary, and, after 1486, chancellor, an office he handled with great distinction. He was dismissed in 1495 for negotiating peace with the French and, though pardoned, did not return to power.Pontano became a major literary figure in Naples after 1471 when he assumed leadership of the city's humanist academy. Called the Accademia Pontaniana, it became one of the major Italian literary academies of the 15th century."Un des écrivains les plus élégants du quinzième siècle italien. Pontano fut un très grand poète néo-latin. Certains lui ont reproché d'avoir dans ses poésies amoureuses introduit autant d'obscénités que les Anciens, mais personne ne lui conteste la pureté de son style, sa fécondité et la grande varieté de ses conaissances" (Oberlé). "Pontano, the most important humanist of fifteenth-century Naples, composed many works of poetry, social commentary, and philosophy. His poems. celebrated human love and the wonders of nature" (Bietenholz). In the Ciceronianus Erasmus himself praised Pontano profusely, but denied that he was truly a Ciceronian, for he used many words not found in Cicero. Apart from a few unobtrusive small defects a fine, wellbound copy. Renouard 49, no. 4 ("241 feuillets non chiffrés"); Ahmanson-Murphy 91; STC Italian p. 532; Graesse V, p.406; Brunet IV, p. 807 ("241 ff. non chiffrés"); Ebert 17743; not in Adams, Gardner, Bibliotheca Astrologia nor Gay-Lemonnier. On the author: Contemporaries of Erasmus III, p. 113-14; Oberlé, Poètes néo-latins en Europe (XI-XXe s.), p. 160. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]