Macrobius - In Somnium Scipionis ... Saturnaliorum - 1574

Very famous Macrobian map and 6 woodcut plates representing Cosmology, Astronomy, Geography, Mathematics, Physics and Ethics.

It contains the famous Macrobian Map, a map that for 1000 years has been the cornerstone of world geography. It was printed for the first time in 1482. It shows the continents in the “Alveus Oceani”, a large Europe and a rather small Africa and Asia. The round map is typically divided into 5 climate zones, in accordance with the pre-Renaissance vision of the world.

The map in this copy has been updated and reflects an awakening of passion for exploration and cartographic advancement. Africa and Asia have grown enormously and Europe has shrunk considerably. The lines of the climate zone on the first map of 1482 were straight, suggesting a flat land.

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman senator and a classical scholar at the beginning of the 5th century AD. “It represents a link between the ancient and medieval cultures”. This edition contains his 2 most important works, the “Saturnalia” and his “Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis”, the “Dream of Scipio”, a commentary on one part of the “De Republica” of the orator Cicero.

The “Saturnalia” are an academic collection in 7 books, written in the form of dialogues, in which the cultural life of the previous generation is idealised. The aim of Macrobius is to provide his son with all the necessary scientific knowledge to deal with the issues of that time. The literary form is that of a banquet. Macrobius was inspired by the Ciceronian dialogues “De Oratore” and “De Republica”. “Set during the Saturnalia of the year 383, it brings together several (evidently non-Christian) members of the aristocracy and their entourage to discuss sublime and ridiculous matters.

More influential during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was Macrobius’ commentary on the “Somnium Scipionis”. Macrobius uses Cicero’s text (De Republica 6,10 ff) as a starting point for a completely Neoplatonic approach to cosmology and the ascent of the soul to the One, with direct obligations to Porphyry and Plotinus. Mathematics, physics, cosmology, astronomy, geography and ethics are discussed.

He thus created a sort of compendium of science and philosophy, which transmitted classical knowledge to the medieval world, and was to occupy a central position in the intellectual development of the West during the Middle Ages. His books belong to the fundamental sources of Scholasticism and medieval science. His work left traces in the works of Dante, Chaucer, Vives and Spencer. (Source for M. and citations: The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass., 2010, p. 553). § Joachim Camerarius, 1500–1574, was one of the most important German classical scholars of the 16th century. Gudeman also calls him “der bedeutendste Philologe Deutschlands im 16. Jahrh”. (Grundriss der Geschichte der klassischen Philologie, Lpz. 1909, p. 216).

Contemporary full parchment binding, with tag, golden titles and decorations on the spine, slight browning. Pages: 567–(62)
Beautiful woodcut brand on the frontispiece, double-backed with two owner’s signatures. Seven woodcuts in the text.

Full title:
Macrobii Ambrosii Aurelii theodosii, viri consularis, & illustris, In Somnium Scipionis, Lib. II. Saturnaliorum. Lib. VII.
MACROBIO Ambrogio Teodoro
Venezia, apud Io. Gryphium, 1574.