XXXIII. PSEUDO-PHILONIC WRITINGS
A. THE FORGERY OF GIOVANNI NANNI
Under the pseudonym "Joannes Annius da Viterbo," Nanni published a
famous book of forgeries, of which the fourteenth was a small treatise to
which he gave the name "Philonis brevarium de temporibus"; he embel
lished it with an elaborate "commentary" by the forger. First published in
Rome, 1498, and reprinted in Venice the same year, it was many times re
printed during the next century or more. The whole series of forgeries was
widely discussed for two hundred years before the last attempt to defend it
collapsed. The best account of the work and of those who have discussed it
is by Ginguine in Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, Paris, II,
1811, 223-226. We have made no attempt to include the literature of this
controversy, and list only such items as are in Mr. Goodhart's collection, or
ones we have encountered in other bibliographies of Philo.
1587. Annius, Joannes, Commentaria super opera diuersorum auctorum de
antiquitatibus loquentium, Rome, Eucharius Silber, 10 July, 3 August
1498, sigs. Giir-Hvinr. Hain ii30. With Nanni's "commentary."
1588.*' [Pausanius Historicus], Auctores Vetustissimi, [Venice], Bernardinus
Venetus [de Vitalibus], 1498, quarto. Hain 12527. See sigs. c 3 v-d 2 v.
Text only without the "commentary."
- Berosus babylonicus. De his que praecesserunt inundationem terrarum
... Philo in brevario temporum, [edited by G. Tory], [Paris], G. de
Marnef., [1510]. (From B.M.)
Reprint of no. 1588.
1590. Berosus babylonicus. De his quae praecesserunt inundationem terra-
rum, [Strassburg, 1511?], 8vo, sigs. fur-fnnr. Reprint of no. 1588.
1591. Annius, Joannes, Antiquitatum variarum volumina, XVII. A vene-
rando... Io. Annio hoc serie declarata, [Paris], Jadocus Badius &
Joannes Paruus, 1512, folios XCIIII-CIIII. (In the colophon: "opera
Ascensiana") Reprint of no. 1587.
Reprinted, 1515. (From B.M.)
1592. Modonese, Pietro Lauro, / cinque libri de le antichita de Beroso,
sacerdote caldeo. Con lo commento di Giovanni Annio di Viterbo
... Tradotti hora pur in Italiano, Venetia, Baldissera Constantini,
1550, folios 221V-242V. Italian translation of no. 1587.
1593. Berosi sacerdotis chaldaici, Antiquitatum Italiae ac totius or bis libri
quinque, Commentarijs loannis Annij Viterbensis... adiecto nunc
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