Catalogo 2013.pdf - Libreria Antiquaria Alberto Govi

art of drinking15) OPSOPOEUS, Vincentius (Vinzenz Heidecker, d. 1539). Die biecher...: von der kunst zutrinckenauß dem latein in unser Teutsch prach transferiert durch Gregorium Wickgram Gerichtsschreiber zu Colmar.Freiburg i.Br., Johannes Faber, 1537.4to. (54) leaves. With the printer’s device on the verso of the last leaf. Old boards, some light browning and spots,but a fine copy.EXTREMELY RARE FIRST GERMAN EDITION.This German translation was somtimes attributed(e.g. Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon, C.L. Lang, ed., Bern& Stuttgart, 1988, vol. 11, p. 694) to the German,poet, dramatist and novelist Georg Wickram (d.ca. 1562), also a native of Colmar in Alasatia, whohad founded a Meistersinger school there and wasthe author of the famous Rollwagenbüchlein (1555)and the novels Der Knabenspiegel (1554), Vom gutenund bösen Nachbarn (1556), and Der Goldfaden (1557).These are regarded as the earliest attempts in Germanliterature to create that modern type of middle-classfiction which ultimately took the place ofthe decadent medieval romance of chivalry. But effectivelythis translation was done by Gregor Wickram,a second cousin of Georg, and also a cousinof Vinzenz Obsopoeus. Gregor was a clerk to thecourt of Colmar and translated Erasmus’ epistle onthe death of Thomas More (1535). His translationof the Ars bibendi is more a German adaptation, anachieved literary production for it’s own accountand has numerous witty marginal glosses by GregorWickram (cf. E. Waldner, Zur Biographie Jörg Wickramsvon Colmar, in: “Zeitschrift für die Geschichtedes Oberrheins”, Neue Folge, 46, 1892, p. 328).Opsopoeus’ long poem in imitation ofOvid’s Ars amandi was first printed in 1536. He“called himself a moderationist but actually, he wasan exuberant drinker who thought that one couldstay just this side of the borderline. Of the same ilkwas his translator Gregorius Wickram… Amongthe writings on wine drinking the Ars bibendi ofObsopoeus occupies a unique place, not so much as a valuable historical document of the period, nor as a literaryproduction, but rather because of the character of the poem… Obsopoeus undertook a task as hopeful as the questfor the fountain of youth. He gave what he thought to be the means to drink all a man could want without becominga habitual inebriate. That he thought of himself as a moderationist is understandable, but it is curious thathistorians of literature refer to him as an exponent of moderation. What Obsopoeus meant by the ‘art’ of drinkingis to avoid becoming a sot. In the first book of the Ars bibendi the author promises: ‘I will give you fixed bonds fordrinking so that mind and feet may perform their duty’. What these bonds are, remained rather vague. The nearesthe came to any rule is: ‘Don’t get intoxicated or do so to the extent that drives away your cares. The amount thatlies between these limits is harmful’. Occasional gross intoxication did not seem to him to be dangerous: ‘Let a faultwhich occurs rarely be excusable. I revile daily intoxication’. The most important measure for achieving this goalseems to have been, in the view of our lusty philologist, to avoid situations in which a man may be forced to drinkbeyond his limits. In order to avoid such situations Obsopoeus advised that scholars should drink with scholars,merchants with merchants, carpenters with carpenters… In choosing his company the drinker should not only seekmen of similar educational and social level, but should avoid men of certain personality types. Obsopoeus seemsto have sensed on type of alcoholic addict, the type sometimes referred to nowadays as the ‘conflict drinker’… Inthe second book Obsopoeus dwells largely on descriptions of the evils of excess. There are many passages whichare illustrative of the mores of his times and the study of that book is well worth the reader’s time. In the third bookthere is more advice on how to keep within reasonable limits and how to avoid intoxication. The drinker should eatwell before drinking; he should eat bitter almonds, radishes, wild cabbage and chives…” (cf. E.M. Jellinek, Classicsof Alcohol Literature. A Specimen of Sixteenth-Century German Drink Literature: Obsopoeus’ ‘Art of Drinking’, in: “Addiction”,M. & M. Plant, eds., London & New York, 2008, vol. 2, pp. 40-41).Vincentius Opsopoeus was born in Bavaria as son of a cook. He was first a teacher at the choir school inSalzburg and continued his studies in Leipzig, Wittenberg and Nürnberg, where he became a member of the circlearound Willibald Pirkheimer. In 1524 he began to edit a series of Greek authors, partially in Latin translation. Thesehe produced mostly with the Haguenau press of Johann Setzter, first editions of Polybius (1530), Heliodorus (1531)and Diodorus Siculus (1539) and translated Lucian’s Hermotimus, and subsequently several more of his works.- 18 -