TERENTIUS AFER. Terentius cum quinque commentis: videlicet Donati: Guidonis: Calphur. Ascensii & Servii.

Folio. 290x200 mm. Full stiff vellum binding (remboitage). Leaves [1], XIII-CCXXXV [i.e. 232]. Several numbering errors. Collation: AA6 B4 C-Z8 2AA-HH8. Printer’s device, Colophon (with date “die 16. Maii 1511”) and register on leaf HH7v. The HH8 blank leaf is missing. Title within a beautiful architectural frame with grotesque decorations on the sides and, below, a scene showing Neptune and the tritons bearing gifts. On the verso of the title, full-page woodcut showing Terence sitting on a bench surrounded by his commentators inside a large room with arches and apse. Another full-page woodcut on the reverse of leaf B3 showing a theater with the audience seen from the perspective of the actor on stage. 153 woodcut vignettes in the text illustrating the different characters of the comedies performed on stage. In total, illustrated title page, two full-page illustrations and 153 vignettes in the text, all printed in woodcut. Brownings and defects, restoration on the title page and on the margins of some leaves, wormhole affecting the text in the central area of the last 6 leaves with loss of text.

Rare illustrated edition. Terence's comedies bear the comments of five scholars: Aelius Donatus (fl. 4th century), Guy Jouennaux (ca. 1450-1507), Giovanni Calfurnius (d. 1503), Josse Bade (1462-1535) and Servius (fl 4th-5th century). The illustrations are the same as the edition that Soardi published in 1497 and are inspired by those of the Trechsel edition of Lyon of 1493, adapted to Venetian taste. In this edition the author of the commentary is indicated thanks to five different symbols, printed on the margin corresponding to the text, one for each of the five commentators of the work: they are explained in the short poem in verse on paper HH7v.

Essling, 871; Sander, 7208; Adams, T-308; Rava, p. 24; Edit 16, CNCE31939.  Cfr. Lippmann, The Art of Wood Engraving in Italy, pp. 92-94.