SENECA, Lucius Annaeus (c.4 BC-65 AD)

Opera philosophica, including Epistolae and Questiones naturales [[dagger]1a:] Seneca moralis. [Colophon, H9v:] Impressum Venetiis per Bernadinum de Cremona & Simonem de Luero. Die. v. octobris. MCCCCXC

      Venice: Bernardinus de Choris, de Cremona and Simon de Luere, 5 October, 1490. Folio: [dagger]2a--r8 s--t6 A--G8 H10 (--H10, blank) 215 of 216 leaves, ff. [3] cxlvii LXV. Roman letter, 62 lines and headline per page, initial spaces with guide letters, spaces for Greek words. Initials and rubrication: red and blue decorated initials on a1 and m1; other initials alternating in red and blue, paragraph marks in red or blue. Greek words not supplied. Leaf size and condition: 320 x 320 x 212mm. [dagger]1r dustsoiled; light stains in the text on C4 and E3 and light marginal waterstains on a few other leaves, small hole in last 2 leaves (contents) affecting one or two letters. A fine fresh copy. Binding: Eighteenth-century British panelled calf, red sprinkled edges. Joints cracked, one upper cord broken, other cords holding but weak, head and tail of spine chipped, corners worn. Provenance and annotation: The Benedictine monasterry of Santa Giustina in Padua with inscription on a2, 'Est monasterii sancte Iustine signatus numero 20026', Three line verse in Italian on [dagger]1r in a contemporary hand; 11 words of contemporary annotation in the text and occasional underlining, pointing fists and grotesque faces in the margins. Engraved armorial bookplate of John Campbell of Shawfield, near Glasgow, probably the son of Daniel Campbell, 1672--1735, the politician who provoked the 'Shawfield riots'; Signet Library, Edinburgh with gilt stamp on boards and shelf-label on pastedown (Sotheby's 11th--12th April 1960, lot 1415, £38, Francis Edwards). Walter Pagel (1896--1983); B. E. J. Pagel (1930--2007). References: ISTC: is00370000; Goff S-370; BMC V 464 ; Walsh 2371; BSB-Ink S-267; Bod-inc S-155. Third edition of the Opera containing the editio princeps of Questiones naturales. (First 1475; there were 5 other fifteenth-century editions, including one in French and one in Spanish). § The first edition of Seneca's works to contain his 'Natural questions' his only extant scientific work. These deal with meteorology in the modern sense, rivers, earthaquakes, meteors and comets, all topics that belonged to meteorology in its ancient sense. According to Sarton, 'Seneca was the first to express a belief in the progress of knowledge (not the progress of humanity); this idea of progress is unique in ancient literature'. The Questiones naturales is the most substantial extant ancient work after Aristotle and so the main source for the history of Greek meteorolgy after Aristotle since it relies heavily on Greek sources. Sarton draws particulary attention to Seneca's account of the earthquake in Campania on 5 February 63 which led him to discuss earthquates and volcanic phenomena. For details of Ficino's contributions and references, see Alan Coates and others, A catalogue of books printed in the fifteenth century now in the Bodleian Library (2005), S-267. A very good and attractive copy from the famous library of Santa Giustina in Padua, one of the most important libraries in Italy in the middle ages. Literature: Sarton I, pp. 247--8; L. D. Reynolds, ed. Texts and Transmission (1983), pp. 376--8.