January 1515

The Lucretius of January 1515, edited by Andrea Navagero, was the last book printed by Aldus shortly before his death on 6 February and, like the first Lucretius of 1500 and the series of Aristotle (1495-1498), it was dedicated to Alberto Pio, Prince of Carpi, Aldus’s former pupil and first supporter in his printing adventure.

The title page shows the third version of Aldus’s anchor and dolphin device, first used in the Ovid of October-November 1502, whereas a later version, designed for the 1512 Cicero, is found on the last verso. The two inscriptions on the title page provide some provenance information: the first, in the lower margin and now very faint, records the gift of the book in the early sixteenth century to a Giovanni Arnolfini, possibly the politician and ambassador Giovanni di Niccolò di Michele di Arrigo Arnolfini of Lucca (1485–1551). The second, in the upper margin, notes its ownership in August 1594 by Johann Huldrych Grob (1571–1621), a protestant minister in Zurich.

Keynes.H.1.33, fol. *1 recto