SIDOINE APOLLINAIRE. Poema aureum ejusdemque Epistole. Milan, Ulrich Scinzenzeler, 1498. In-folio of [144] ff, supple vellum with covers, gilt coat of arms in the centre of the boards, smooth spine, author's name handwritten on the tail edge (Early binding). This is the second edition of the works of Sidonius Apollinaris and the first to be accompanied by a commentary by Giovan Battista Pio (1460-1543), a poet and philologist from Bologna and a disciple of Beroaldo. Sidoine Apollinaire (430-486), born in Lyon, was prefect of Rome and bishop of Auvergne. His work includes around twenty panegyrics and secular poems and a collection of 146 letters divided into nine books. The present Milanese edition is the first of his works to be dated, the editio princeps having been published undated in Utrecht (before 1474). A precious and rare Milanese incunabulum, lavishly printed by Ulrich Scinzenzeler at the expense of Girolamo Passirano d'Asola and Giovanni degli Abbati. The text is printed in Roman type, framed by a commentary and enamelled with large and small engraved lettering on a black background. A very fine copy with wide margins and remarkably well preserved. Some old handwritten marginalia. From the libraries of the Collegio di San Barnaba in Milan, with a handwritten bookplate on the title, and of the Scottish lawyers' guild The Society of Writers to the Signet, whose arms were gilded on the boards in the 19th century. ISTC is00494000 - HC 1287* - Goff S-494 - Pell 910 - Pr 6038 - BMC VI 773 - CIBN S-250 - GW M42001.