Author: Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). Commentary by P. Antesignanus Rapistagnensis (Pierre d’Antheigné).
Title: Terentius. In quem triplex edita est P. Antesignani Rapistagnensis Commentatio.
Publisher: Lyon, Apud Mathiam Bonhomme, sub Claua Aurea, 1560.
Language: Text in Latin.
Size: 7 x 5 inches.
Pages: 383 pages.
Binding: Very good contemporary limp vellum of the period, complete and structurally sound, with age patina and minor holes. The binding is of remarkable bibliographical interest: it reuses an Italian engraved map printed on vellum, Il Disegno della Seconda Parte dell’Asia, engraved by Giacomo Gastaldi and published by Girolamo Ruscelli, Venice, ca. 1561–1574, depicting the “Second Table of Asia” including the Archipelago de Maldivar and Sole I. Indica. The map’s title cartouche, compass rose, and toponyms remain clearly visible across both covers.

During preliminary restoration work, the binder’s reuse of this sixteenth-century map was revealed beneath the folds of the original limp cover. The decision was made not to rebind the volume, preserving the discovery in its authentic state and allowing the map to remain fully visible — a rare and tangible witness to Renaissance humanist bookbinding practices. Now under a protective removable mylar cover.

Content: The text is clean, complete, and well-printed on strong paper, with wide margins and fine typographic clarity. Occasional early marginalia. Minor tear to the lower corner of the title leaf and light age toning, otherwise internally very good.

Estimate: (USD 900 – 1500).

The book: A refined Renaissance edition of Terence’s Comedies with commentary by Pierre d’Antheigné (Antesignanus Rapistagnensis), printed in Lyon by Mathias Bonhomme, one of the city’s leading humanist printers. Bonhomme’s press, active under the “Golden Key” (sub Claua Aurea), was renowned for classical editions of high scholarly standard. This 1560 issue presents Terence’s comedies in three interpretative layers—annotated, critical, and philological—designed for academic use in humanist colleges and universities.

The binding: An extraordinary survival of cartographic vellum reuse, integrating art, geography, and literature. The fragment derives from “Il Disegno della Seconda Parte dell’Asia”, engraved by Giacomo Gastaldi, the Venetian cosmographer whose maps shaped sixteenth-century geographical imagination. Issued in Ruscelli’s Italian edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia (Venice, 1561–1574), the map depicts India, the Maldives, and the surrounding seas, with dense stipple engraving and Italian legends.
Printed on vellum rather than paper, the fragment likely originated from a presentation or luxury copy of the atlas, later recycled by a Lyon binder.
This preserved state—left unrestored after the map’s rediscovery—offers a rare, museum-level witness to Renaissance binding ingenuity and the circulation of printed material between Venice and Lyon.

The author: Publius Terentius Afer (Terence, c. 195–159 B.C.) was one of the foremost Roman playwrights. His comedies, admired for linguistic elegance and psychological subtlety, were central to humanist education from the fifteenth century onward, inspiring Erasmus, Melanchthon, and generations of European scholars.

The cartographer: Giacomo Gastaldi (c. 1500–1566) served as cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and was among the first to integrate Ptolemaic geography with contemporary discoveries. His maps—delicate, precise, and richly annotated—transmitted the new image of the world to Renaissance Europe and remain landmarks in the history of cartography.