Aurea Expositio Hymnorum una cum Textu

An instructive text for learning Latin from one of the most important grammarians in Spanish history: Antonio de Nebrija (1441–1522). Born Antonio Martínez de Cala, he Latinized his name, as was the style at the time, to Aelius Antonius Nebrissensis, a nod to the Roman name for his hometown of Lebrija, Nebrissa Veneria. Descended from converted Jews, Nebrija was active as a teacher, historian, poet, and astronomer, but is best remembered as a Castilian grammarian, having published and presented the first treatise on Spanish grammar to Queen Isabella I in 1492. It was his express desire to “transform Castilian speech into an artifact so that whatever henceforth shall be written in this language may be of one standard tenor, one coinage that can outlast the times. Greek and Latin have been governed by art, and thus have kept their uniformity throughout the ages. Unless the like of this be done for our language, in vain Your Majesty's chroniclers ... shall praise your deeds.” That being said, this work, the Aurea Expositio Hymnorum una cum Textu, deals with Latin. It consists of a selection of 85 hymns with two dozen woodcuts with scenes from the life of Christ and other biblical tales. Printed by Jorge Coci in 1515, the edition actually contains a print error with regard to its exact date of publication: although February 1st is listed, this is actually the date on which a previous edition was published in 1508. This rare mistake is a glimpse into the process of publishing while the craft was still in its infancy, and is an additional feature of this splendid Latin primer.