This is the second Aldine edition of Lucretius, the first century B.C. Roman natural philosopher; its editor, Andrea Navagero was Aldus's principal Latin editor for the period 1512-15 and one of the ablest editors of Latin of his time.
In the preface Aldus notes that although much of the philosophy expounded by Lucretius is repugnant to a believing Christian, there is much of value in his work and he should therefore be read anyway. Aldus, now sixty-five, would die within a month of publication of this, his last production. Thus his complaint concluding the preface becomes the more poignant: "But, if it weren't for the bad health with which I have been rather harshly afflicted for some months now, quite a bit would have been added which would testify to all of our diligence, and would have made [the text] of Lucretius itself fuller." From all accounts, Aldus simply wore himself out, as the eulogy printed in the 1515 edition of Lactantius (no. 32) states.
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