The Only Ancient Latin Novel to Survive Intact – Bound in Contemporary Italian Morocco

Apuleius [Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis] (ca. 124- after 171)

Commentarii a Philippo Beroaldo conditi in asinu[m] aureau[m].

Venice: Per Simonem Papiensem dictum Bevilacquam, 29 April, 1501.

Price: $12,500.00

Folio: 31.3 x 22.2 cm. 240 lvs. Collation: a4, b-q6, r4, s-z6, &6, cum6, rum6, A-O6, P4 (with blank leaf P4).

SECOND EDITION WITH BEROALDO’S COMMENTARY (1st 1500).

An excellent copy in a contemporary blind-stamped Venetian morocco binding with pastedowns from a 14th c. manuscript of Justinian’s Pandects (small tears to spine, boards with some surface wear, corners bumped, small losses to the leather, short worm-trails on rear board). The text is crisp and bright aside from about a dozen lightly toned leaves. There is a small, persistent stain in the gutter, occasional light marginal damp-stains, a small tear in leaf M2 with no loss, and a few marginal wormholes in the final two gatherings. The author’s name written horizontally along the fore-edge of the text-block. With a woodcut border derived from the 1491 Dante. Woodcut device at the end. On the title there is a contemporary manuscript purchase note showing the costs of the book in sheets (“sciolto”) and its binding (“legatura”):"Galeocti d Balionibus / Sciolto Car[li]ni 5 / Legatura Car[li]ni 3"

Written in Africa by an African author, Apuleius’ “Asinus Aureus”(“Golden Ass”) is the only example of an ancient novel in Latin that has survived intact, and one of only two examples of the genre to survive at all, the other being the fragmentary “Satyricon” of Petronius. The text is accompanied here by the important commentary of the Bolognese humanist Filippo Beroaldo (1453-1505), whose innovative Latin style was influenced by Apuleius’ own (see below).

“Along with Petronius’ ‘Satyricon’, Apuleius’ work represents for us the only example of an ancient novel in Latin, and it is the only one that has survived intact. Apuleius remains one of the Latin authors most likely to fascinate modern readers. His exploration of abnormal and supernatural realms of experience and his fascination with sex, violence, and redemption exert an appeal even upon the many readers who are spared the bizarrely sensuous pleasures of his Latin style… To the neoplatonist Macrobius, two centuries later, it seemed almost incredible that a Platonic philosopher had sunk to composing a novel of erotic, licentious adventures such as the ‘Golden Ass’. This sort of moralistic reservation, however, had no influence on the work’s fate in medieval times….

“Apuleius was an African born to a wealthy family of Madaura (approximately present-day Algeria). He studied at Carthage, Athens (where he studied Platonic philosophy), and Rome. He ultimately settled at Carthage, achieving lasting fame as an orator, and notoriety for marrying the mother of his school chum, for which he was prosecuted for magic (why else would an elderly widow consent to the marriage?). His self-defense, polished for publication by Apuleius himself, is a chief source for his biography.

The Plot of the “Golden Ass”:

“Of the eleven books, the first three are concerned with the adventures of the young protagonist Lucius before and after his arrival at Hypata in Thessaly, which was traditionally a land of magic. Involved already during his journey in the mysterious atmosphere surrounding the place, through the dark tale of his traveling companion, Aristomenes, the young man shows at once the basic feature of his character, curiositas. This leads him deeper and deeper into the witchcraft that lies at the heart of the life of the city, in which he at once finds himself experiencing an outrage disguised as a kindness by his friend Pythias.

“The guest of Milo, a rich local man, and of his wife Pamphila, who is connected to magic, Lucius succeeds in winning the favors of their servant Fotis and persuades her to let him be present secretly at one of the transformations that her mistress undergoes. Upon seeing Pamphila change herself into an owl by the aid of an unguent, Lucius cannot resist and insistently begs Fotis to help him try such a metamorphosis on himself. Fotis agrees but makes a mistake with the unguent, and Lucius becomes an ass, though he retains his human faculties of thought. This is the crucial episode in the novel, the one that sets the rest of the plot in motion.

“Lucian learns from Fotis that in order to recover his human appearance, he must eat roses. This escape from his predicament, though he pursues it at once, is put off until the end of the novel and is achieved only after a long series of mishaps has befallen the ass. A second section of the novel includes the ass's experiences with a group of brigands who have carried him off: his removal to the mountain cavern in which they live, a failed attempt at flight along with a girl, Charite, who is their prisoner, and the final deliverance of the two by the girl's fiancé, who, pretending to be a brigand, succeeds in tricking the gang (4-7.14). The principal narrative becomes the frame for a second narrative, in the form of a story told to Charite by the old woman watching over her, the beautiful and famous tale of Cupid and Psyche, which occupies parts of three books (4.28-6.24).

“The following books, except for the last, cover the tragicomic calamities of the ass, who passes from self-styled priests of the Syrian goddess, who devote themselves to lascivious practices, to a miller, who is killed by his wife, on to a very poor vegetable gardener, a Roman soldier, and then to two brothers, one a cook, the other a pastry chef. Lucius, who always remains unobserved under the ass's skin, is able to witness the unhappy stories of adultery and death that fill out the last books, varying and enlarging the basic form that Apuleius seems almost to announce at 8.22. Everywhere the ass observes and records actions and plans with his human mind, impelled equally by his curiosity about the surrounding world and by the desire to find the roses that can free him from the magic spell.

“The cook and the pastry chef are the first to recognize his two-sided nature, a discovery that leads to the final event. Told of its unusual character and amused, the master of the two artisans buys the ass to show it off to his friends. In the course of the exhibitions made of him, Lucius succeeds in getting away from the arena at Corinth, in which he was to copulate with a woman condemned to death, and in his flight he reaches a deserted beach, where he falls asleep. Lucius's abrupt awakening in the middle of the night opens the last book. The ritual purification that follows and the prayer to the Moon prepare the way for the decidedly mystical atmosphere that dominates the concluding part.

“Lucius recovers his human form on the next day by eating the roses of a crown taken from a priest in the sacred procession of Isis, just as the goddess herself had prescribed when she appeared to him on the beach. In the procession there also reappear, as masqueraders, many of the characters of the novel, including the symbol of the baseness Lucius has endured, a kind of asinine Pegasus, who is the mockery of all. In gratitude, he becomes initiated into Isis's cult at Corinth. Then at Rome, at the behest of Osiris, he becomes a pleader of cases in the Forum.”(Conte)

Beroaldo and Apuleianism:

Along with his teacher, Francesco Puteolano, Filippo Beroaldo (1453-1505) was one of the two most important Bolognese humanists of the 15th c. His commentary on Apuleius is an important text for tracing the development of Latin style in the late fifteenth-century.

"Beroaldo’s work as a philologian was recognized by contemporary scholars, including Poliziano, Barbaro, and Pico, with whom he met and corresponded. He became famous particularly as a commentator. In his commentaries, Beroaldo expresses warmly his enthusiastic love for and understanding of the ancient texts, which often provide him the occasion for digressive observations and reflections on the events of his own life or the customs of his own times.” (Ciapponi)

“From the early fifteenth-century, Ciceronianism had dominated the humanist imitation of classical style. But in the second half of the century, a reaction set in. Without really replacing Ciceronianism, scholars such as Georgio Valla and Angelo Poliziano argued for an eclectic approach to imitation and called for writers to cultivate their own individual styles. A more peculiar development at the end of the century was the emergence of Apuleianism as represented by such important figures as Paolo Cortesi and Filippo Beroaldo at the University of Bologna. Taking as their model the late antique author Apuleius, the Apuleians cultivated a style that was obscure, suffused with archaic and rare words, careless of balanced or periodic sentence structure, and willing to appropriate pell-mell phrasing and vocabulary of different periods, genres and styles of Latin literature."(Monfasani, "Humanism and Rhetoric", in "Renaissance Humanism").

Essling 1321; Adams A-1371