Valerio Massimo - Valerius Maximus cum commento Oliverii Arzignanensis Vicentini - 1497

Venetian edition of "Facta et dicta memorabilia" by Valerio Massimo with commentary by Oliviero d'Arzignano. Latin writer who lived at the turn of the year zero, protected by Consul Sextus Pompey, followed him to the proconsulate of Asia; his work, dedicated to Tiberius, was published after the fall of Sejanus, whose memory is execrated in it. The work of V. M. is a collection of memorable facts and sayings in 9 books: facts and sayings are collected in 95 categories, each of which is divided into two parts, one for the Romans and one for foreigners. Roman things prevail: 636 against 320 foreign ones. The tone is patriotic and moralizing, with an obvious rhetorical aim: the collection is a tool for the school of rhetoric. In compiling it, V. M. made use of previous similar collections (such as those of Pomponius Rufus, Igino, perhaps Cornelius Nepos) , but he also directly used Latin authors such as Cicero, Varro, Livy, Sallust, Pompeius Trogus, and Greeks such as Xenophon, Theopompus, Diodorus Siculus. The style of V. M. is scholastic: the manner is aimed at searching for the effect, so that each episode is stylized as an example. The work was fortunate in ancient times like in the Middle Ages; two ancient and one medieval epitomes have arrived to the present day. 206 sheets. Impressum Venetiis, per Bartolameum de Zanis de Portesio, 1497 Die uigesimosecundo mensis Martiis.