Venice: Aldine Press, December, 1501. First Aldine edition. The editio princeps was published in Ferrara in 1471. This Aldine edition is distinguishable from the Lyonnese forgeries by "Amphitheatrum" and "seposita" on the first page of text. Octavo (leaves measuring 152 x 95 mm). [208] ff., collating complete: A-Z8, &8. A Very Good+ copy. Nineteenth-century dark blue morocco with gilt Aldine Press device to each board. Boards bordered in gilt. Gilt spine in six compartments with raised bands. Some rubbing to extremities. Gauffered edges. A bit of dampstaining to endpapers; otherwise, a very clean copy throughout. An attractive example.

Martial's Epigrammata was the fourth book published as part of the Aldine Classics, after Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal, all printed earlier in the same year. This edition is printed almost entirely in the world's first italic printing type, which was cut by Francesco Griffo for Aldus Manutius and first appeared in the Aldine Virgil. The octavo format of this edition was also something of an innovation. The format had previously been used for devotional works, but not for classics; these handheld volumes, then, were produced in a smaller format that appealed to students and the learned public. In the 1501 edition of Juvenal, the printer himself wrote that an octavo volume "may be more conveniently held in the hand and learned by heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone."

Martial is credited as the father of the modern epigram (a short satirical or witty statement, usually in a couplet). His epigrams open a window on life in Rome in the first century AD: the often lewd behavior of his contemporaries (which he enthusiastically satirized), the poet's own nostalgic recollections of life on the Iberian Peninsula, and the social mores of his day. "It is certain that of all poems, the Epigram is the pleasantest, and of all that writes epigrams, Martial is counted the wittiest" (Sir John Harrington, 1560 - 1612). Very Good + (Item #8040)