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Noctium Atticarum commentaria per Bonfinem Asculanum summa nuper diligentia et studio recognita.

GELLIUS, Aulus.

  • Publisher: Giovanni Tacuino
  • Published: 1517 , Venice
Second edition of Gellius's opus with the commentary of philologist Matteo Bonfini (1441–1517), annotated throughout by a contemporary reader whose corrections and comments include references to the lectures of Paolo Bombasi as cited by Erasmus in the 1508 edition of the Adagia. Erasmus singled out Bombasi as 'the best of friends'. Bombasi (also Paulus Bombasius, or Paolo Bombace, 1476–1527) was born in Bologna of a noble family. He distinguished himself as a rhetor, philologist, and poet, and became prefect of the Vatican Library, holding regular correspondence with Erasmus. He was one of the victims of the violence which occurred in the 1527 sack of Rome. Our annotator is likely to have been part of the Bologna circle of humanists who gathered for readings of Aulus Gellius, occasionally including Erasmus who lived for some months in Bombasi's house in Bologna. The most explicit note occurs on f. 13v ('Paulus Bombasius Bononiensis hunc versiculum sic emendat … hoc modo: "saepe etiam fuit stultus opportune locutus." Hoc autem refert Erasmus…'). More evidence of a wide collation exercise is to be found on f. 128v: 'Aliter textus istum emendant eruditiores […] uideri ut omnia exemplaria habent'. EDIT16 20606 ; Graesse VII, 45; Olschki, Choix des livres 4605.

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