Metamorphoses. [With the commentary of Raphael Regius]

Ovidius Naso, Publius (43 BCE-17 CE)

Published by Expensis & labore Francisci Mazalis, Parma, 1505

An unusually fine, broad-margined copy, bound in recent patterned boards, with some contemporary annotations in the text. The contents are in excellent condition with minor blemishes: title page lightly soiled and with early signature erased, occasional light marginal damp-stains in the upper margin, small stains to lvs. p4-6, and q4, a few other trivial blemishes. Illustrated with 59 woodcuts, largely based on those in the very rare Rosso-Giunta Italian-language edition (translated by Giovanni Bonsignori), published at Venice in 1497, and reprinted in 1501 by Lucantonio Giunta. For the 1505 Parma edition, seven new woodcuts were added. "The Parmaedition sset of images constitutes the most complete corpus, which becomes the model for the long list of Venetian and French illustrated editions of the poem that follow…. [the new woodcuts are] almost certainly by the same artist, on the basis of the monograms that appear on some of the woodcuts in both editions."(Díez-Platas) "These illustrations for Ovid are among the best examples of the 'classic' style influenced by Andrea Mantegna, as discussed by Hind. He considers the possibility that the 'i.a.' on some of the illustrations is a signature of the block cutter Jacob of Strasbourg, known to have been working in Venice about 1500 . Hind concludes that 'if any of the Venetian illustrations are Benedetto Montagna's design, nothing is more likely to be his than the Ovid.' Subsequent editions of Ovid were heavily dependent on these blocks" (Mortimer). This cycle of woodcuts influenced many Italian Renaissance artists including Giovanni Bellini, perhaps providing inspiration for such works as The Feast of the Gods (National Gallery of Art, Washington). The 1505 Parma printing may have been the edition used by Michelangelo Anselmi, a painter who spent most of his career in Parma, who clearly used the woodcuts to derive his composition for Apollo and Marsyas (also in the National Gallery of Art, Washington). "The narrative illustrations of the 1497 Venetian edition offered a new paradigm for the visual presentation of the Metamorphoses that would continue to influence illustrated editions of Ovid until the second part of the sixteenth century. The project entailed the designing of a set of images, predominantly narrative, that covered a significant number of the stories of each book of metamorphoses… "Six new stories are illustrated in the Parma edition: the mission of Cadmus in search of his sister Europa and the founding of Boeotia (Figure 3), which are narrated in the first verses of Book III (vv. 1-137); the story of Narcissus, narrated in Book III (vv. 339-510); theepisodeoftheMinyas daughters,whorefusedtoattendthemysteriesofBa??husat Thebes, told in the opening lines of Book IV (vv. 1-54); Phineus disruption of the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda (Figure 4), told in the opening lines of Book V (vv. 1-235); the Pallas and Arachne story, told in the first verses of Book VI (vv. 1-145); as well as the story of Phrixus and Helle (Figure 5), which -although it does not appear in Ovid spoem-wasincludedinBonsignori sItalian rendering, asthefirststoryofBookVII,which explains the origin of the Golden Fleece and contextualizes the entire story of Jason and Medea in Colchis and its disastrous consequences. The Parma edition also includes a new version of the first illustration of Book I, the Creation of the world, showing God creating the animals. (Fátima Díez-Platas, "Et per omnia saecula imagine vivam: the completion of a figurative corpus for Ovid s Metamorphoses in fifteenth and sixteenth century book illustrations" in The Afterlife of Ovid, P. Mack and J. North, editors (2015), pp. 115-136) "As in the Venetian woodcut of the time, the illustrator concentrates on the essential lines; he avoids any cross-hatching. The white background is prevalent, the human figures distinct, unnecessary details and ornaments are neglected." (translated from Henkel,Illustrierte Ausgaben von Ovid's Met. Seller Inventory # 5057

Bibliographic Details

Title: Metamorphoses. [With the commentary of ...
Publisher: Expensis & labore Francisci Mazalis, Parma
Publication Date: 1505
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Fine