First edition of the works of the 4th century Latin poet of Bordeaux, Ausonius, to be edited by classical scholar, and tutor of Joseph Scaliger, Élie Vinet (1509-1587) came to Bordeaux in 1539 at the behest of Andrea Gouvea with whom in 1547 he went to Coimbra, returning in 1549 and remaining in Bordeaux, on the antiquities of which he published several works, until his death
The present edition is beautifully illustrated, with two fine folding plates of Le Palais Tutele and L’Amphitheatre of Bordeaux, here in excellent condition on uncut leaves, a full-page map of the city and a full page woodcut of the Augustus Altar. Vinet persuaded a former teacher at the college, Simon Millanges, in 1572 to establish a printing house. The young Millanges as well as publishing more traditional works such as Ausonius was keen to find original material and it was he who first published Montaigne.
Provenance: Nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of Charles William Hamilton Sotheby (1820-1887) with his name and motto ‘Ou Bien, Ou Rien’ on front pastedown. In 1881 he inherited Ecton Hall, Northamptonshire; this volume not listed in catalogue for Col. H. G. Sotheby’s sale of the library there (Sotheby’s, 24 July, 1924).
Minor browning and spotting in places, otherwise a clean copy in reasonable condition.
Desgraves, L. Elie Vinet, humaniste de Bordeaux, 1509-1587 : vie, bibliographie, correspondance, bibliotheque, Geneva: Droz, 1977 pp. ; Desgraves’ earlier work ( Bordeaux, 1951) on Simon Millanges as a printer adds nothing.
