Officinae Ioannis Ravisii Textoris Epitome. Opus nunc recens post omneis omnium editions . . . tomus I [-II] [with his Cornucopiae . . . epitome]

heirs of Sebastian Gryphius, 1560. Hardcover. Fine. Lyon: heirs of Sebastian Gryphius, 1560; 1560; 1560 (Three titles with woodcut stamps of Gryphius (Griffin)). Together, 3 volumes in one. 8vo (169 x 106mm). Vol. I: 464, [8]; Vol. II: 470, [10]; Vol. III: 87 pages, including final blank in first volume and final leaf with woodcut printer’s device of griffin in second. Contemporary calf, covers paneled in blind with gilt fleurons in corners and oval lozenge stamp in center; (early Latin and French marginalia in first volume, uniform hand). Exceptionally fine copy of this compilation volume in a lovely early binding.

Ravisius Textor’s principal introductory work on Latin, the ‘Officina,’ an early ancestor of dictionaries which arranged bits and pieces of Latin writers, continually published and expanded, bound with his ‘Cornucopiae’ a miscellany on where to find a variety of things. Ravisius Textor was an Erasmian schoolteacher, linguist, scholar, and humanist who flourished in the later part of the 15th century - first in Nivernais, then in Navarre, and finally as rector of the University of Paris in 1520. Textor’s Officina is the rich, information-laden precursor of the dictionary, which presented an astonishing variety of Latin textual sources, including neo-Latin and those near contemporary ones, such as Potanus or Erasmus. First published in 1520, the Officina was comprehensive compilation of Latinate sources, which contained many lists arranged according to a dynamic series of topics. The compilations were meant to give pupils convenient access to classified excerpts of extant writing when reading or composing Latin verse. In fact, Textor is somewhat apologetic about any confusion in his work and writes a set of elegiacs to the reader at the beginning to quell any criticism. Textor says the Officina is not for “learned poets” but for uneducated boy (rudibus pueris) who are for the first time, “sweating in the dust” of their “elementary instruction.”(fol. Aiv). The Officina, while valued, was not reprinted until 1532, ten years after Textor’s death, but after this date the editions of this work in its entirety and in its epitomes multiplied. The part of the Officina labeled Cornucopiae is a curiosity in it own right, devoted entirely to a catalogue of things (animals, minerals, material wealth) which can be found in great abundance in specific places, as in, what countries abound in bees or cheese or gold, etc. His listing also finds various things not found in various places – no deer or bears in Africa, no swine in Arabia, for instance. Sweeping bits of information backed by classical references - a most intriguing collection of Renaissance commonplace material, which would have been a constant point of reference for those who used it. This Gryphius edition of 1560 not commonly located is institutions or on the market; OCLC finds four copies in the US.