De nummis, ponderibus, mensuris, numeris, corúmq[ue] notis & de vetere computandi per digitos ratione, ab Elia Vineto Santone emendati

by Priscian, Quintus Rhemnius Fannius Palaemon, Bede, and Lucius Volusius Maecianus | edited by Élie Vinet

Paris: Guillaume Rouillé (Philippe Gaultier?), 1565

[2], 4, 5, [13], 95, [1] p. | 8vo | A^8 ã^4 B-G^8 | 157 x 102 mm

Likely the first edition (and so called in the privilege) of this little work on coins, weights, and measures drawn from ancient and medieval authors. A variant title exists with the names of Rouillé and Poitiers publisher Enguilbert de Marnef; another 1565 version may exist with only the latter's name, possiblyrepresenting a different edition. Rouillé was primarily a Lyon publisher himself, but operated a Paris branch office in the 1560s, perhaps maintained by nephew Philippe Gaultier. ¶ The authors collected here—two grammarians, a historian, and a jurist—are rather unexpected sources for a scientific and technical subject. Priscian headlines the collection and is really the book's raison d'être. As he explains in his preface, Vinet wanted to avoid too slight a publication—libellum noluimus solum emittere—and so he added several smaller pieces on the same subject. As a teacher, and certainly as a prolific editor and author—his name is attached to 98 records in USTC—Vinet was well positioned to assemble texts on similar subjects from across the vast premodern corpus. In good humanist fashion, his preface, which touches on his experience with Priscian manuscripts, castigates printers and booksellers for having corrupted old texts—"not only the old booksellers, but even the new ones" (p. 3: non solùm veteres librarii, verum etia[m] novi). ¶ Vinet began teaching at Bordeaux's College of Guienne in 1539, established just six years earlier, and there passed much of the remainder of his life. The school quickly developed a reputation as a leading liberal arts college, attracting the likes of Montaigne and Joseph Justus Scaliger. In 1556, having been passed over as the school's next director, Vinet returned to his native Saintonge, where he indulged his antiquarian interests. After years of preparing textbooks for the school, it seems an indulgence well earned. He spent a good deal of this time among the books of Jacques-Benoît de Lagebaston, president of Bordeaux's parlement—"with more leisure to devote to books and letters than I had ever had in my life," he wrote in his 1571 Antiquité de Saintes. In 1562, he returned to the College of Guienne, and finally as its director.

CONDITION: Later leather, perhaps 18th-century, the spine tooled in gold. ¶ Scattered foxing, sometimes heavy, the title bearing the worst; lower corner torn from ã2, not affecting text. Front joint partially cracked, but all cords remain intact and the board firmly attached; spine label lost; spine ends chipped, leather rubbed and worn.

REFERENCES: Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600 in Cambridge Libraries, P2116; Louis Desgraves, Elie Vinet: Humaniste de Bordeaux (1509-1587) (1977), p. 86, #155; C.E. Dekesel, Bibliotheca Nummaria: Bibliography of 16th Century Numismatic Books (1997), p. 733 ¶ Desgraves, Elie Vinet, p. 5-17 (good background on Vinet)

Item #688