P. Virgilii Maronis poetae Mantuani universum poema. . . .

P. Virgilii Maronis poetae Mantuani universum poema. . . .

Venice:

Ioannem Gryphium,

1584.

In this 16th-century Venetian folio edition of the works of Virgil, there are two sets of excisions. The first excision occurs in a section of Virgil’s Sixth Eclogue, in which the god Silenus sings a song about unhappy love and metamorphosis. The second excision is an obvious act of expurgation and censorship. In the signature CC (leaves 385–87), a lengthy section made up of Priapeia, or songs dedicated to the fertility god Priapus, has been cut out entirely, leaving only stubs as evidence. The final portion of the songs, printed on the same leaf (388r) as non-priapic text, has been crossed out in ink. The Priapeia were placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum of the Roman Catholic Church in 1583.

From the collection of Rare Book School