{"title":"Aldine Editions","description":"\u003cp\u003eEditions produced by the 15-16th century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"aesop","title":"AESOP","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the rarest and most sought after editions of the early Aldine press and in practice the earliest obtainable of the author's original text. The volume comprises the Aesopian Fables in Latin and Greek, together with a life of the author, similarly the 34 fables of Gabrias, Phurnutus on the 'nature of the Gods', Palaephatus on disbelieving histories, Heraclides on the allegories of Homer, the hieroglyphs of Horapollo, a collection of proverbs drawn from Tarraeus and Didymus, Aphthonius and Philostratus' de fabula in Latin and Greek, those of Hermogenes translated by Priscian, and finally an Apologia for Aesop 'de Cassita apud Gellium'. Almost all of these, apart from the Aesop, are in their first edition or editio princeps, Praz p. 373 particularly notices the Horapollo. \u003cbr\u003e\n Aesop is the traditional composer of the oldest and most important collection of Greek Fables, which are probably the earliest examples of popular and maybe children's literature still extant. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC already knew of Aesop as an author from the past. Aesop's life has been overlaid by many romantic fictions but it is fairly certain that he was a Thracian, a house slave and likely a family tutor on the island of Samos at the beginning of the 6th century BC. His Fables are one of the most enduring works of European literature, of which the earliest written compilation probably dates from three centuries later and is now lost. The earliest surviving version is Roman, made by Babrius, tutor to the children of Alexander Severus in the 3rd century AD, though stories from other, especially oriental sources, were probably added. The collection we now recognise was compiled and edited by Maximus Planudes and from which the popular fables of modern Europe have been derived. Whatever their exact origin they have constituted a delightful source of amusement and instruction for children of all ages since they were popularised by the printed editions of the C16, of which none is more important than this printed and edited by Aldus.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AESOP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816065999183,"sku":"L1283","price":59500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1283-6.jpg?v=1781795331"},{"product_id":"bessarion-cardinal-johannes","title":"BESSARION, Cardinal Johannes","description":"\u003cp\u003ePart I comprises the second much expanded Aldine edition of Bessarion s great defense of Plato and Platonism, written in response to the translation of the  Laws  by George of Trebizond who had taken advantage of its publication to print a sharp criticism of Plato and exalt Aristotle. Bessarion, one of the great humanists and Hellenists of the mid C15 had studied philosophy under Gemistus Pletho and imbibed from him a love of Plato, happily shorn of Gemistius  hatred of Aristotle. Bessarion rather advocated a synthesis of the two systems of learning, perceiving and appreciating their many points of contact and in the present work (ch. 5) demolishes Trebizond s attack by the simple device of enumerating verbatim all the errors of his translation and faults in his commentaries. The second part of the present work, here printed for the first time, comprises Bessarion s own translation of Aristotle's metaphysics and book one of those of Themistius. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n It is said that Bessarion, the greatest scholar - statesman - diplomat - ecclesiastic of his age, had three aims in life: the reunion of the Latin and Eastern Church, the rescue of Greece from Moslem occupation and the triumph of classical literature and poetry, especially the Greek. He succeeded temporarily in the first, partially in the second , and beyond all expectation in the third - paving the way for the great revival that was to follow. In between his many extraordinary labours in the public field, organizing crusades, restoring the City and University of Bologna, dominating great international councils, he became patron of the very first Renaissance Accademia (actually founded in his house) and amassed an extraordinary library of more than eight hundred codices of ancient Greek ms. - which he gave to form the basis of the Marciana in Venice.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BESSARION, Cardinal Johannes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816066097487,"sku":"L1198","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Bessarion-L1198-1.jpg?v=1781795331"},{"product_id":"epistolae-graecae","title":"EPISTOLAE GRAECAE","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lovely copy of this rare Aldine incunable, the editio princeps of the majority of the letters it contains, including the editio princeps of the letters of Plato and the first printing of any of his writings in the original Greek, edited by Marcus Musursus, perhaps the most influential figure in the progress of the Aldine Greek Press, and beautifully printed by the incomparable Aldus Manutius. Musurus brought together 35 authors in his extensive collection, ranging from Plato, Isocrates and Aeschines from antiquity to 4th-century authors such as Gregory of Nazianzus and later to Procopius of Gaza. Also included are Synesius, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, St. Basil, Phalaridis Tyranni, Bruti Romani, Apollonius of Tyana, and Julian Apostate (Emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus); other letters are spurious or of doubtful authorship, such as those by Hippocrates and Euripides. The book is printed in Aldus's second and better Greek type (2:114), designed by Francesco Griffo da Bologna. In his dedication to Antonio Urceo Codro (1446-1500) professor of Greek and Latin at Bologna, Aldus states that he has set up in type whatever letters he could procure of some thirty-five Greek writers. A total of twenty six authors were published in these vols. Those that do not appear in this edition he reserved for a later publication, which was never realised. Letter-writing was an art and study allied to rhetoric, which formed part of a humanistic education, and compendia of letters circulated as model precedents. The letters published in this volume however are of interest far beyond mere examples of letter-writing. An example is Plato s seventh letter, the longest and most important. It is addressed to the associates and companions of Dion, most likely after his assassination in 353 BCE, in the form of an open letter, and contains a defence of Plato s political activities in Syracuse as well as a long digression concerning the nature of philosophy, the theory of the forms, and the problems inherent to teaching. Toward the end of the letter he gives an explanation of the perfect circle as an existing, unchanging, and eternal form, and explains how any reproduction of a circle is impossible. He suggests that the form of a perfect circle cannot even be discussed, because language and definition are inadequate. This collection was of great influence; Copernicus taught himself Greek using this work with the help of a Greek-Latin dictionary; the manuscript of his De Revolutionibus contains a suppressed passage from Lysis s letter to Hipparchus found in this collection. Introducing the text of the letter Copernicus mentions  Philolaus believed in the earth s motion.. (and) Aristarchus of Samos too held the same view . From 1493, Musurus was associated with Aldus Manutius and belonged to the Neacademia (Aldine Academy of Hellenists), a society founded by Manutius and other learned men for the promotion of Greek studies. Many of the Aldine classics were published under Musurus' supervision, and he is credited with the first editions of the scholia of Aristophanes (1498), Athenaeus (1514), Hesychius of Alexandria (1514) and Pausanias (1516). Musuros' handwriting reportedly formed the model of Aldus' Greek type. Works printed by Aldus Manutius have become synonymous with all that is best with  late fifteenth century and early sixteenth-century book production, particularly with typographical elegance and editorial quality and this rare and beautifully produced incunable is no exception. The Aldine Epistolae Graecae 'was not replaced by an equally useful collection until 1873, the date of R. Hercher's Epistolographi graeci' (Wilson, Byzantium to Italy, p.150). \u003cbr\u003e\n A fine copy with tremendous provenance; Bound for the 1st Duke of Sutherland (1758-1833), described by Charles Greville as a \"leviathan of wealth\" and \"...the richest individual who ever died\". Then in the collection of the great bibliophile Martin Bodmer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"EPISTOLAE GRAECAE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816070422863,"sku":"L1344","price":35000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8227.jpg?v=1781795323"},{"product_id":"livy-titus-and-sigonius-carolus","title":"LIVY, Titus [and] SIGONIUS, Carolus","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Sigonius  classic and handsome edition of Livy s monumental history of Rome and the first edition of his Scholia.  Livy s history begins with the landing of Aeneas in Italy and ends with the death of Drusus in 9BC though it was probably intended to continue to the death of Augustus.  Of the original 142 books, only 35 have come down to us and of these two are incomplete; nevertheless Livy remains the first authority for the history of ancient and Republican Rome down to the conquest of Macedonia in 167 BC.  It is a state history, military and political, arranged strictly chronologically, recounting all the major events with accounts of their principal participants.  Inevitably, given the extent of the ground covered there is little philosophical reflection, but the work is saved from being a dry recitation of fact by the author s considerable literary talents.  Livy s elegant Latin, masterly portraits of great men, impressive speeches and skilful depiction of the play of emotion made him a favourite with Roman readers equalled only by Cicero and Virgil.  His history, the greatest narrative history of antiquity, provided the groundwork of almost everything subsequently written on the subject and constituted a textbook for schoolboys from his day to modern times.  Sigonius  edition is the first in which scholarly criticism is applied to the chronology of Roman history was the best and most accurate of the day. Sigonius (1524-1584) was professor of literature at Venice and produced a number of works for the Aldine press   he was then the most significant classical scholar in Italy and probably rivalled only by Scaliger elsewhere.  Doubtless because of its size and consequent cost this edition is rare, and was almost unfindable in good condition, even by the mid C19.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LIVY, Titus [and] SIGONIUS, Carolus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816082186575,"sku":"L1518","price":3850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0223.jpg?v=1781795320"},{"product_id":"perotto-niccolo","title":"PEROTTO, Niccol√≤","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn excellent copy of the third Aldine edition of this monumental collection of grammars, including one of the most important Renaissance Latin dictionaries, by Niccolo Perroto, together with three influential classical grammars by Varro, Festus and Nonius Marcellus, dedicated to the condottiere Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino. Although the date 1513 is shown on the final colophon as if it was the second Aldine edition, this is in reality a reprint carried out in May 1517, as the colophon at the end of Perotti's work indicates (col 1064 [i.e. 1054]). The largest section of the work is taken up by Perroti s Cornucopia. Written as a commentary on book I of Martial, it includes a discussion on almost every word of Martial's text, becoming a standard work of reference on the Latin language.  a massive encyclopedia of the classical world. Every verse, indeed every word of Martial's text was a hook on which Perotti hung a densely woven tissue of linguistic, historical and cultural knowledge  Brian Ogilvie,  The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe.   The work was revised and expanded by Perotto's son Pyrrhus and the first edition was published in Venice by in 1489; the first Aldine in 1499. The text has been carefully numbered by page and by line so that the index can be precisely keyed, marking the inception of a modern scholarly system of reference. Niccol√≤ Perotto (1429-1480) was an Italian cleric and humanist, born and died in Sassoferrato. From 1451 to 1453 he taught rhetoric and poetry at the University of Bologna. In 1452 he was made Poet Laureate by the Emperor Frederick III, in acknowledgment of his speech of welcome to the city. He was the papal secretary from 1455 and archbishop of Siponto in 1458. Although his later career was as a papal governor, he continued his scholarly pursuits, editing the works of the Roman writers Pliny and Martial. Apart from his Cornucopia, he wrote a Latin school grammar, Rudimenta Grammatices (Pannartz and Sweynheim 1473), one of the earliest and most popular Renaissance Latin grammars, which attempted to exclude many words and constructions of medieval origin. To the Cornucopia are added the three most important classical texts on the grammar and etymology of the Latin language.  Varro s treatise is the earliest extant work on Grammar. This great work which was finished before Cicero s death in 43 BC, owes much to the Stoic teaching of Aelius Stilo. .. The first three of the surviving books are on Etymology, book V being on names of places, VI on terms denoting time and VII on poetic expressions.  Sandys I p. 179. Sextus Pompeius Festus  epitome in 21 books of the encyclopedic treatise  De verborum significatione  of Valerius Flaccus is added next. Festus gives the etymology as well as the meaning of many words, and his work throws considerable light on the Latin language, mythology and antiquities of ancient Rome. The work ends with Nonius Marcellus s compendia. A lovely fresh copy of these important texts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PEROTTO, Niccol√≤","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816085528911,"sku":"L1543","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_5651.jpg?v=1781795319"},{"product_id":"manutius-paulus","title":"MANUTIUS, Paulus","description":"\u003cp\u003eExpanded edition, revised and corrected of Manutius' celebrated commentary on the 16 books of Cicero's letters to his closest friend T. Pomponius Atticus and the starting point of all modern editions of the text. Written over the course of many years from 65BC onwards and compiled by Cicero's personal secretary Marcus Tullius Tiro, the letters are frequently written in a subtle code to mask their political content. In his impressively detailed commentary Manutius is clearly aware of this, discussing the implications of certain names and places thoroughly, explaining their relationships to each other and explaining historical and social significance as appropriate. A valuable edition in a fine copy. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n \"Perhaps the most valuable of Cicero's surviving works are the letters, such a vivid commentary on the last years of the Roman Republic as we have of no other period of ancient times. Here alone, devoid of formality, the character of Cicero can be seen.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MANUTIUS, Paulus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816107417935,"sku":"L802","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2013-11-27-23.11.42.jpg?v=1781795310"},{"product_id":"pontano-giovanni-gioviano","title":"PONTANO, Giovanni Gioviano","description":"First Aldine edition of the astrological writings of Johannes Jovianus Pontanus (Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, 1429-1503), humanist, diplomat, scholar and poet who became the driving force behind the Neapolitan Academy and its official leader after 1471, as well as Naples' Secretary of State. His was considered by contemporaries as good as, or superior to, his Classical models. Pontanus' career provides an excellent illustration of the power and prestige which might be attained by men of letters in fifteenth-century Italy.\r \r The present volume consists of Pontanos' scientific (or proto-scientific and astrological) works: a translation and commentary on the Centum Ptolemaei sententiae, and other, briefer treatises, including De luna and De rebus coelestibus.\r \r The pseudo-Ptolemaic Centum Sententiae, or Centiloquy, is a collection of astrological aphorisms, once thought to have been the work of Claudius Ptolemaeus - from whose work it differs in many key respects. Seventeenth-century English scholars such as Joseph Moxon and William Lilly noted that some ascribed it to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. More recent speculation has centred around the figure of Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Yusuf Ibn Daya (d. c.941), who wrote extensive glosses to the work, and translated it into Hebrew and Latin. While some of the sententiae demonstrate typical astrological vagueness (III: a person skilled in a particular field will have been born under the relevant star; VI, XI: the day and time for a particular activity should be chosen carefully, with reference to one's horoscope), others are extremely specific (XX: 'Do not pierce not with iron that part of the body which may be governed by the sign occupied by the Moon'; XXII: 'Do not either put on or lay aside any garment for the first time, when the Moon is located in Leo'). Pontanus' commentary is notable for its concern with proving the superiority of astrology over much contemporary 'science', and for the socio-psychological rather than theological nature of its speculations. It was immensely influential in contemporary and later astrological and prophetic writing: Nostradamus quotes with approval his first proposition 'Soli numine divino afflati praesagiunt \u0026amp; spiritu prophetico particularia' ('Only those inspired by the divine godhead can prophesy, and only those inspired by the spirit of prophecy can prophesy detailed events').","brand":"PONTANO, Giovanni Gioviano","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117707087,"sku":"L593","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_6d949577-4acb-4edf-a998-12eee4563161.png?v=1781795303"},{"product_id":"athenaeus","title":"ATHENAEUS","description":"\u003cp\u003eProbably the only copy combining the Editio Princeps with the first Latin edition. Written in Rome in the early 2nd century, the work provides a unique insight into the moneyed classes during the Hellenistic literary world of the Roman Empire.  A vast variety of erudition has been preserved by Athenaeus of Naucratis, who lived at Rome under Commodus and his successors. His comprehensive work 'Doctors at Dinner' originally consisted of thirty books. It was abridged into fifteen, and it is this abridgement that has survived in an incomplete form in a single ms. The scene is laid at the house of the Roman pontiff Larentius, and all kinds of accomplishments - grammar, poetry, rhetoric, music, philosophy and medicine - are represented among the many interlocutors. It is an encyclopaedia under the disguise of a dialogue. Food and drink, cups and cookery, stories of famous banquets, scandalous anecdotes, specimens of ancient riddles and drinking songs and disquisitons on instruments of music are only part of the miscellaneous fare which is here provided. We are indebted to the quotations in Athenaeus for our knowledge of passages from about 700 ancient writers who would otherwise be unknown to us, and, in particular, for the preservation of the greater part of the extant remains of the Middle and the New Attic comedy.  Sandys I:337. An important source of Classical Greek recipes, including the original text of the oldest recipe by a named author, Mithaecus, in any language, it also describes in detail different kinds of wine, categorizing them by place and origin and compares their characteristics, properties and effects. Sexual mores constitute another conversational focus, with pederasty discussed without restraint, including details of boy-lovers famed for their beauty and skill. In addition come insights into music, literary gossip and philology, as well as the stories behind the creation of many artworks and amusing stories. An invaluable resource for social historians. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Originating from Naucratis in Egypt, Athenaeus was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, who flourished at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd C. Deipnosophistae is his only extant work, though he mentions other works on the history of the Syrian kings and on fish.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ATHENAEUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119869775,"sku":"L674","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage2.png?v=1781795298"},{"product_id":"de-medici-lorenzo","title":"DE MEDICI, Lorenzo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION of the poems and poetic commentary of Lorenzo de'Medici, some of which are were written as early as age 17. The sonnets, sestinas, and songs are almost entirely preoccupied with love for beautiful women, in a style both imaginative and lively that strives toward the lyric of Dante and Petrarch. In his \"Comment\" on the poems, Medici expounds on life, love, his philosophical influences, and even current events that inspired him. For instance, he describes the death of Simonetta Vespucci, \"la bella Simonetta\" after his own nickname for the model for Boticelli's Venus, and its influence over his work: throughout Florence her early death produced sadness and 'a most ardent longing for her. And therefore she was taken uncovered from her house to the burial place, and moved all who crowded around to see her to copious tears'. Poems written later in life are also included in the volume, of a more serious and religious nature: on the virgin Mary, and the Crucifiction and Resurrection of Christ. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Lorenzo de'Medici \"The Magnificent\" (1449 - 1492), scholar, politician, and poet, was the driving force behind the flourishing culture of 15th century Florence through his patronage of the arts. Walter Pater's characterization of Lorenzo's age with that of Pericles is perhaps most apt: \"It is an age productive in personalities, many-sided, centralized, complete. Here, artists and philosophers and those whom the action of the world has elevated and made keen, do not live in isolation, but breathe a common air, and catch light and heat from each other s thoughts. There is a spirit of general elevation and enlightenment, in which all alike communicate.\" \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n George Fortescue (1791-1877) son of the first Earl Fortescue, was member of Parliament for Hindon, who supported many pro-catholic bills in parliament. Although little noticed a a collector, he had a fine library, particularly of Aldines.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE MEDICI, Lorenzo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126554447,"sku":"L1815","price":8750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1815-4.jpg?v=1781795275"},{"product_id":"egnatius-giovanni-battista","title":"EGNATIUS, Giovanni Battista","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this curious collection of exemplary episodes, issued in Paris some months after the princeps of Venice the same year. Giovanni Battista Cipelli (1478-1553), better known by his humanist nickname Egnatius, was a prominent scholar in Renaissance Venice and a trusted collaborator of Aldus Manutius. Very knowledgeable in Latin and Greek, he taught in the School of St Marcus and was appointed official orator of the Venetian Republic. On account of his philological, editorial and teaching skills, he was held in high esteem by Pietro Bembo, Marco Musuro, Marco Antonio Sabellico and even Wilibald Pirckheimer and Erasmus. His most successful work was De Caesaribus, a learned overview of the lives of the Roman, Byzantine, Frankish and German emperors, up to Maximilian I of Augsburg. An extract of the second book circulated independently as an essay on the origins of the Turks. Following the model of Valerius Maximus, Egnatius assembled a vast number of edifying stories from the lives of Venetians and other illustrious personalities of the past and present. It is divided into nine books and each of the numerous chapters is devoted to a topic (either virtue or vice). Book 8 includes a note on the invention of printing (f. 300rv) and a praise of Columbus (f. 301v). Muslims and Ottomans are also frequently mentioned, with several examples drawn especially from the life of Saladin (ff. 172r, 237rv, 242v, 265v, 326r). ). The work was published posthumously by Marco Molin, the son of Egnatius s heir and friend. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This is a copy of the first of the eighteen books published in Paris by Bernardo Torresano on behalf of the Aldine Press over the 1550s and 1560s. Bernardo was the grandson of Andrea Torresano, father-in-law and business partner of Aldus Manutius. The Aldine enterprise tried several times to set up a branch or at least have a trusted dealer in Paris, but the attempts were all quite short-lasting and little fruitful.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"EGNATIUS, Giovanni Battista","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128553295,"sku":"L2015","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2015-Egnatius-1.jpg?v=1781795268"},{"product_id":"roman-catholic-church","title":"ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the official Catechism of the Catholic Church following the decrees of the Council of Trent. It is an instructive guide to either learn or teach the foundations of Catholicism, based on the Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer. It is not, however, a mere set of questions and responses but a lengthy treatise on most aspects of the Catholic faith for the benefit of the clergy rather than the laity; it is addressed to parish priests, whose religious education was often faulty and poor.  This editio princeps is an important specimen of the Aldine press s output, since it was published by Paolo Manuzio during his stay in Rome as the first official papal printer in history. Pius IV established this pioneering papal press in 1561, but its onerous expenses were soon laid on the Roman Commune. This is why the device on title has the symbols of the city of Rome, the coat of arms of the Commune with the famous motto SPQR and, at foot, the small Aldine dolphin twisted on an anchor with Paolo Manuzio s initials at sides. Renouard, Brunet and Graesse noticed that two different, equally valuable issues were carried out, but their order of appearance has not been established.   This is a copy from the Jesuit College of Rome. Founded in 1551 by St Ignatius of Loyola, such an epoch-making institution contributed significantly to forming the Italian and European Catholic ruling class for centuries. Here, the Jesuits developed their famous forward-looking study plan (Ratio studiorum) centred on Latin and Greek, philosophy, theology and maths; several similar colleges were successfully established by that order throughout the continent. Its massive library, comprising some very important historical bequests, was incorporated into the Italian National Library in Rome following the end of Papal rule over the city in 1870.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129798479,"sku":"L2055","price":6250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2055-Catechismus-1-e1439553426308.jpg?v=1781795266"},{"product_id":"strabo","title":"STRABO","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the original text of one of the earliest and most influential geographical surveys of Antiquity. Scion of a prominent family of the Pontus region, Strabo (64\/63 BC-c. 25 AD) travelled extensively through Southern Europe, North Africa and Middle East, mostly during the peaceful reign of Augustus. The Geography is his only surviving work and the first comprehensive account of the subject as known to his contemporaries. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The topography, geology, history and political features of the main regions of the Roman world are thoroughly described, relying on first-hand investigation and many Greek sources now lost, such as the writings of the first systematic geographer, Eratosthenes (c.276- 195\/4 BC), and of Hipparchus (c.190-120 BC). Above all, however, Strabo regards Homer as the most authoritative writer. Strabo s descriptions of the Mediterranean regions, Asia Minor and Egypt are excellent, while those of Gaul and Britain are weaker. Almost unknown to the Romans, the Latin version of the Geography became the standard geographical reference work during the Middle Ages. Among many other significant remarks and hypotheses, Strabo was the first scholar to discuss in detail fossil formation and vulcanism (both in Book 3). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This editio princeps   beautifully enriched with section titles, capitals and head-pieces printed in red (an unusual feature for the Aldine press)   was accomplished by Benedetto Tirreno and Andrea Torresani, most likely with the help of Marco Musuro; the dedication to Alberto Pio of Carpi bears a touching encomium of Aldus, recently passed away. The text was drawn from a rather corrupted manuscript, now in the BnF (Par. gr. 1395). The enterprise was wholeheartedly encouraged by Jean Grolier, who urged Torresani to continue editing and publishing Greek and Latin classics, as Aldus had done throughout his career.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"STRABO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131404111,"sku":"K49","price":55000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8158.jpg?v=1781795261"},{"product_id":"bolzanio-urbano","title":"BOLZANIO, Urbano","description":"\u003cp\u003eLater issue of the successful third extended edition of the important Greek grammar by the Franciscan friar Urbano delle Fosse, better known as Urbano Bolzanio (1442-1524). The work had three editions (1498, 1512, 1545) and several reprints in relatively a few years. It was the first Greek grammar written in Latin and contributed to the spreading of this ancient language in the Western world. The 1545 edition was composed in 1523 and later published thanks to Pierio Valeriano, Bolzanio s nephew.  Pupil of the famous Constantine Lascaris from Constantinople, Bolzanio became one of the most celebrated humanists of his time. After leaving his home city he travelled in Greece, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt and Sicily, collecting inscriptions. In Messina he attended Costantino Lascaris s lectures. In 1484 he moved to Florence at the invitation of Lorenzo de  Medici who appointed him tutor to his son Giovanni, the future Pope Leo X. In 1490 he returned to Venice where he taught Greek and collaborated with Aldo Manuzio, who published the first edition of his grammar, dedicated to Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola. Bolzanio also joined the Aldine academy, meeting Pietro Bembo and Erasmus, with whom he edited the Adagia (1508).  According to Antonio Rollo ( La grammativa greca di Urbanio Bolzanio , 2001), Bolzanio s work was very innovative and occupied an important place in the study of Greek grammar. It offers an extensive synthesis of theories and teachings drawn from the author s knowledge of the Byzantine grammatical tradition, especially Manuel Chrysoloras, Constantine Lascaris and Theodor Gaza.   This edition includes nine books, divided into four groups: the first three are dedicated to the basics (alphabet, accent, article, declension of noun, pronoun and adjective, verb); the following four (4-7) include exceptions in the different dialects, syllable count, use of patronymics and diminutives, verb conjugation; the eighth and ninth concern the irregular verbs, especially those ending in    . There follows a list of the monosyllables and the meanings of    in the Hellenistic grammarian Tryphon s De passionibus dictionum (C1th BC). The text embraces examples from classical (Homer, Hesiod, the Greek tragedians, Thucydides, Demosthenes, various writers and poets) and contemporary authors and inscriptions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOLZANIO, Urbano","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816135532879,"sku":"L2567","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Photo-09-02-2017-14-30-15-e1486830569291.jpg?v=1781795210"},{"product_id":"cicero-marcus-tullius-1","title":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn interesting copy of the earliest influential Italian translation of a masterpiece of Latin literature, first published by the Aldine press in 1545. The translator, Guido Logli from Reggio, was a man of letters in service of the Farnese family and acted as agent of Paolo Manuzio in contracting the publication of some works of Annibal Caro and Girolamo Ruscelli. This edition is part of the ambitious plan pursued by Paolo Manuzio to provide his readership with the complete works of Cicero not only in Latin, but also the Italian vernacular.  The vast corpus of Ciceronian Epistolae and Orationes was for a long time used as foundation texts in early modern schools. Indeed, this copy bears an inscription of the otherwise unknown  Pompeo de  Capellan , written in a childish hand and employing Venetian dialect ( Questo libro siè de mi ). The other inscriptions, scribbles and drawings   some only visible under UV lamp   by Pompeo or slightly later students comprise try-outs of Latin alphabet, a passage from the prayer to Virgin Mary ( sancta Maria ora pro nobis ) and a formal address for a letter in Italian vernacular ( Al Mag.co sig.or Manoli amico et come patron mio sempre osser[vantissimo] ). A charming Italian Renaissance school-book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816136876367,"sku":"L2270","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2270-Cicero-1-e1504180667982.jpg?v=1781795203"},{"product_id":"cato-marcus-porcius","title":"[CATO, Marcus Porcius]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy of this interesting compendium on Roman agriculture and country life, edited by Giovanni Giocondo from Verona, with dedication by Pietro Bembo. The conjunction of these texts can be found from the Middle Ages. The texts of Cato the Censor and Varro were transmitted together in numerous manuscripts, that of Columella previously lost, was rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in the early 15th century, in a 9th century manuscript from Fulda. They were first jointly published in 1472 in Venice by Nicolas Jenson and formed the principal source of information on aspects of Roman rural life, such as wine and olive production, farming, bookkeeping and the breeding and grazing of livestock. The authors, Marcus Porcius (234-149 BC), Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27BC) and Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (4-c.70 AD), were Roman gentlemen, farmers and landowners. The edition was based on the manuscripts found in Paris by Giovanni Giocondo (c. 1433   1515) which contained a more correct version of the Roman texts. Giovanni Giocondo was one of the main representatives of Renaissance Humanism, editor of other Aldine texts and known for his annotated and illustrated edition (1511) of Vitruvius  De architectura. This edition includes a papal privilege, a dedicatory letter by Bembo to Leo X (November 1513), Giovanni Giocondo s preface to Leo (1514), two addresses by Aldo to the reader, errata, another preface from the philologist Giorgio Merula (1430-1494) to Pietro Priuli, an extensive glossary of obscure terms, finally a letter from Merula to Bernardo Giustiniani, followed by the table of contents. In the dedication Aldo expresses his interest in these treatises and his wish to spend his old age in the countryside. The text opens with Cato s De agricoltura (c. 160 BC), the oldest surviving prose work in Latin, dealing with the development of vine, olive and fruit growing. There follows Varro s Rerum rusticarum (c. 36 BC), divided into 3 books, on farm building and labour, the breeding, management and feeding of animals, especially sheep and birds, fowl, bees and fishponds. It provides the etymology of words, citing earlier authors who wrote on the cultivation of the fields. Columella s  De re rustica  in 12 books, is considered the most important work on agriculture, characterised by the elegance and purity of the style. It is a systematic treatise on rural economy in general, covering a number of topics: book 1 concerns general matters, such as buildings and labour, 2 soils; 3-5 wines, olives and fruit; 6-7 domestic animals, 8 poultry and fishpond, 9 bees, 10 (in verse) and 11 gardening, 12 a farm manager s wife s duties and recipes for wine and vinegar. Book 10 in dactylic hexameters is a sort of supplement to Virgil s Georgics. Columella s work also includes a separate book on arboriculture, which is part of a larger work. The text closes with Palladius, who lived c. 400 AD and was the last of the Latin writers concerned with agriculture. His work is divided into 14 books. The first presents a general introduction; each of the following 12 describes the works suitable for a particular month. Book 14 is a didactic poem in elegiac verse on the grafting of trees.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[CATO, Marcus Porcius]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816140218703,"sku":"L2628","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2628-1.jpg?v=1781795183"},{"product_id":"le-roy-louis","title":"LE ROY, Louis","description":"\u003cp\u003eGood first edition of Louis Le Roy s much admired and curious work on the mutability of the universe, in its Italian translation by the humanist Ercole Cato. Le Roy (1510?-77) was a humanist, political writer and historian renowned for his translations of Greek authors, including Aristotle and Plato, into French.  De la vicissitudine , first published in French in 1575, was his last work and a definitive compendium of his prismatic ideas on history, politics, letters and philosophy. The main subject of the work are  the variety and vicissitudes of men, peoples, cities, republics, kingdoms and empires . A blend of the classical and Christian traditions inspired by the cultural syncretism of Italian humanism, it concentrates on change inspired by the Renaissance concepts of  mutability  and  variety  as the principle responsible for all historical mutations, from migrations to wars, the history of civilisations, the making and unmaking of the physical world through interactions between the four elements. These mutations, Le Roy argued, are kept together by divine providence which prevents such balance of contraries from turning into chaos. In the section where Le Roy explains the simultaneous creation and eventual end of the Heavens and Stars, the owner of this copy concealed with a pasted slip:  when the Universe will have dissolved, returning to the ancient Chaos and original darkness . Le Roy was especially attracted by the birth, development and ruin of civilisations, which he explored through the medieval model of universal history embracing the origins of man to the present. The work ends in a sombre tone, with a prophetical message based on the warnings of the past, that the climax of European civilisation might soon be undone by new invading peoples, plagues and wars.     Niccol√≤ Manassi (fl. 1590), a scholar and author of the preface, was entrusted with the Venetian Aldine press from 1585, when Aldus the Younger moved to Rome to run the Vatican press.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LE ROY, Louis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141300047,"sku":"L2717","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2717.jpg?v=1781795178"},{"product_id":"catullus-gaius-valerius-tibullus-albius-propertius-sextus","title":"CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, TIBULLUS, Albius, PROPERTIUS, Sextus","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe attractive, gilt armorial binding was produced c. 1700 for Nicolas Lambert, seigneur of Thorigny and Vermont. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Very good, crisp copy of this Aldine first edition, edited by Hieronymo Avantio, of the immortal poems of Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius the three most important elegiac authors of the late Roman republic and early imperial era. Catullus, Propertius and Tibullus s poems revealed a new poetic feeling rejecting the heroic character of the epic tradition in favour of a more familiar tone and intimate subjects like love, erotic desire, rejection and mourning. Gaius Valerius Catullus (84-54BC) spent most of his life in Rome where he was acquainted with important authors and politicians. His most famous  carmina , 116 of which are extant, include verse on his love and desire for  Lesbia , and lampoons against public figures like Julius Caesar. Albius Tibullus (55-19BC) was part of the circle of the Roman orator and politician Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. His verse survives in four books, only the first two of which are of safe attribution, and is mostly devoted to his intense and star-crossed love for the married  Delia . Sextus Propertius (c.50-15BC) enjoyed the protection of Maecenas and Augustus and is most famous for his four books of poems, many written for his beloved  Cynthia . This  elegiac collection  format was successfully republished in Europe throughout the century; in the 1590s, several editions appeared in which the texts were  castigati  and  expurgati  of their most obvious sexual references. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy was once part of the Bibliotheca Lamoniana. First acquired by Guillaume de Lamoignon in 1650, the library was augmented from 2500 to over 6000 volumes in the following century, especially by Chr étien François II de Lamoignon. Upon his death in 1789, it was sold to the English bookseller Thomas Payne. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Nicolas Lambert (1659-1729) de Thorigny and Vermont was a French politician and bibliophile. Like several members of the Lamoignon family, he held office as a Parliamentary councillor and then president of one of the chambers. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Robert Dalrymple (also Hamilton) (b. 1716) was probably the third son of Sir Robert of Castleton (d. 1734) and grandson of Sir Hew Dalrymple, 1st Baronet of North Berwick. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Fredrik Wulff (1845-1930) was professor of philology at Lund.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, TIBULLUS, Albius, PROPERTIUS, Sextus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141889871,"sku":"L2711","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2711.jpg?v=1781795173"},{"product_id":"rossi-girolamo","title":"ROSSI, Girolamo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this important and extensive work in ten books on the civil, religious and artistic history of Ravenna, from its origins until the C16th, by Girolamo Rossi (1539-1607), member of an illustrious family from Parma and a well known historian and physician at Pope Clement VIII s court.   The work is unique in the historiography on cities gathering a number of literary sources from the classical to the early modern age, as well as of documents from the archives of Rome and Ravenna. Several centuries of history are embraced. Starting from the pre-Roman age, the book describes Ravenna as the capital of the Western Empire (402-476), the reigns of Odoacre and Teodorico, the Byzantine Exarchate, until the time of the city-state and aristocratic government under the Traversari and Da Polenta families, and eventually, Venetian (1441-1509) and ecclesiastical dominion.   The work is complex but well structured, with a rich paratext including a dedication to the cardinal Giulio Feltrio della Rovere (23 February 1571), which celebrates Ravenna Church and its relationship with Rome; then poems in Latin by contemporary scholars, particularly Orazio Toscanella, Natalino Conti and Vincenzio Carrari, praising Rossi s work and Ravenna s eternal fame; a letter to Ravenna where the author expresses his gratitude to the civil authorities for supporting him and his family. Then follows a detailed index of names, the text of the ten books and genealogical trees of the Traversari and Da Polenta families.  Each book methodically focuses on a period of Ravenna s history and is divided into different sections providing also information on topography, Christian culture and architecture. For instance, the first book concerns the mythic foundation of the city by descendants of Noah and the etymology of the name; the sixth regards numerous events across a wide range of time (Frederick Barbarossa s stay, support for the Crusaders, Frederick II s reign, Dante and the crisis of the aristocratic government); the eighth is on the period 1500-1513 and includes many pages on Cesare Borgia, Margherita da Rossi and Pope Giulio II; books nine and ten describe events from 1513 to the 1568, with references to Papal politics, Guicciardini and the author s public life; the tenth is mainly dedicated to the age of the archbishop Giulio della Rovere (1563-66).  The work is written in an elegant Latin and shows Rossi s encyclopaedic culture which ranges from law to hagiography, from medicine to astronomy, with a keen interest in architecture and urban planning. Rossi minutely describes famous religious buildings, such as the churches Basilica of San Vitale and San Giovanni Evangelista, giving valuable evidence of a series of monuments since destroyed.  Countless inscriptions, letters, biographies and legal acts are quoted (Mario Pierpaoli,  Girolamo Rossi, medico e storico ravennate , Ravenna 1996), as are classical, medieval, and contemporary authorities.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROSSI, Girolamo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816145494351,"sku":"L2374","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_2390.jpg?v=1781794947"},{"product_id":"abravanel-juda-ben-isaac","title":"ABRAVANEL, Juda ben Isaac.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAbravanel s (1465   ca. 1535) important philosophical treatise on love, first published posthumously in 1535. The Dialoghi was exceedingly popular and went through at least five editions (four by Aldus) in twenty years, and was quickly translated into French, Hebrew and Latin. It is notably one of the first original philosophical compositions to be published in the vernacular.  Don Yehudah Abrabanel, the son of Rabbi Yitshak Abrabanel, has been one of the most extraordinary and fascinating personalities in Jewish philosophy on the threshold of modernity. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n His Dialoghi d Amore has become one of the most celebrated books of Renaissance literature and thought. Despite his personal afflictions   the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the abduction and forced conversion of his son by the King of Portugal (about which he wrote a moving poem  complaint on the times )   he has bequeathed to us one of the most outstanding philosophical books of the epoch. Dialoghi d Amore is one of the chief expressions of Italian Platonism, revived and flourishing at the time.  Ze ev Levy.Modeled on the Platonic dialogue, the Dialoghi d Amore examines the nature of spiritual and intellectual love, which is regarded by Abravanel as the principle dominating all existence, reaching its apotheosis in the love of God. He structured his three dialogues as a conversation between two  characters , Philo, representing love, and Sophia, representing science or wisdom. The first dialogue is a contemplation on the distinctions between love and desire, or the types of love and their true nature. The second postulates that love is the dominant principle of all life and describes how love operates in human beings  lives. The third and most lengthy is a discussion of God s love, how it encompasses all of existence, from the lowest creatures to the heavens. A discussion of beauty and the soul follows, with an analysis of Plato s ideas. The dialogues cover a huge range of subjects including beauty, the intellect, fascination, the influence of the planets, reproduction, nature, psychology, mans place in the universe, creation, reason, friendship, virtue, poetry and much more.  Abrabanel attempts (especially in the third dialogue of his book) to bring about a merger between Jewish-religious conceptions and Renaissance Platonism. To this purpose he welds together the Jewish concept of love of God with a religious-aesthetic idealization of the world. For the first time in the history of Jewish thought, there was a philosopher who awarded space to aesthetic reflections .. and who set out to explicate and define beauty.  Ze ev Levy. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895-1969) was a poet, professor, literary critic, translator and historian ??. A close friend of Siegfried Sassoon and his second in command on the western front, he appears in  Memoirs of an Infantry Officer  etc under the pseudonym Velmore. A leading authority on D.H. Lawrence, Pinto gave evidence for the defence in the 1960  Lady Chatterly s lover  obscenity trial. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n An unsophisticated copy of this important work, beautifully printed at the Aldine press.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ABRAVANEL, Juda ben Isaac.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816154702159,"sku":"L2931","price":2350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20190807_143913.jpg?v=1781794921"},{"product_id":"barbaro-giosafat-et-al","title":"[BARBARO, Giosafat, et al.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good copy of the first Aldine and first collected edition of seven C15 and C16 Venetian travel narratives to the East, with a preface by Antonio Manuzio.  This volume of 1543 is rare and it is much more difficult to find fine copies of this than the second edition of 1545  (Renouard 128:8). The work contains accounts written by Giosafat Barbaro, Ambrogio Contarini, Aloigi di Giovanni and anonymous authors. Barbaro (1413-94) was a merchant based for sixteen years at the Tana, a major commercial emporium of the Serenissima near the Sea of Azov. His accounts told of travels in Crimea, the lower Volga and Dnepr, Constantinople, Trebisond, down to Tiflis, as well as Persia. Ambrogio Contarini (1429-99) wrote his narratives as a complement to those of Barbaro, whom he met in Persia, after travelling through Eastern Europe, Russia, the Tartar desert, Crimea and Caucasia. As ambassador, he told not only of adventurous passages and exchanges with peoples like the Tartars, but also meetings with important figures like the Persian king Usuncassan and the Grand Duke of Muscovy. Little is known of Aloigi di Giovanni (fl. early C16) who, after reaching Egypt on board of the Bernarda, travelled through Ethiopia, Arabia and Persia to India in 1529, which, together with Turkey, is also the subject of the anonymous narratives. Engagingly written, these accounts included descriptions of the culture and rites of local peoples, of expeditions such as that of Barbaro with 120 men to dig up an alleged treasure in Transcaucasia mercantile adventures involving fine gemstones and the sight of the 50,000 richly harnessed horses of King Sophi, so tall Aloigi di Giovanni could not reach their back by stretching his hand as far as it would go. A delightful epitome of the adventurous spirit of the Renaissance Serenissima.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[BARBARO, Giosafat, et al.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816157454671,"sku":"L3064","price":6750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3064-3.jpg?v=1781794903"},{"product_id":"cicero-marcus-tullius-lambin-denis","title":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius, [LAMBIN, Denis.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good copy of two Aldine editions, intended as companion volumes, of Cicero s rhetorical works, here issued for the first time with a commentary by the humanist Denis Lambin. Despite the imprimatur  Ex Bibliotheca Aldina , these works were printed by the Torresani, heirs to Andrea, Aldus s  socerus  and associate; these were also their first Ciceronian editions. The Torresani editions have been praised as  handsome, almost all rare, and kept in much esteem  (Renouard,  Notice , 72). Due to their excellence, they were either attributed to Aldus and his heirs or mistaken for counterfeits even by notable bibliographers until the mid-C19 (Bernoni,  Dei Torresani , 128). One of the most influential figures of classical antiquity, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) put his legal skills to the service of politics with speeches which became landmarks of forensic oratory. Defined by Quintilian as  eloquence itself , his copious prose production occupied a fundamental place in medieval syllabi. Subsequent to the rediscovery of further texts, including the letters, by scholars like Petrarch, Cicero contributed to forging the Latin style of the Renaissance and its ideas on political theory (e.g., Republicanism), rhetoric (e.g., the principles of argument, eloquence and invention) and philosophy (e.g., Stoicism). The first work in this sammelband includes his greatly influential  ad Herennium , by then presented as probably spurious ( incerto auctore ), as well as  De inventione  and  Topica  (how to construct arguments in structure and content), and  De partitione oratoria  on oratory techniques. The second work begins with  De oratore , an immensely influential analysis of how a good orator should construct persuasive arguments which should however be driven by sound ethical principles. There follow  Orator , a description of the perfect orator integrating observations in previous works, and  De claris oratoribus , a history of eloquence through individual figures including Pericles and Solon. Denis Lambin s commentaries to  Rhetorica  and to the first book of  De oratore  appended to each part bear a separate t-p, pagination and collation, but were not intended for separate publication. Lambin (1520-72) was a French humanist who taught Latin and Greek at the Collège de France. He was praised for his philological precision but also criticised for being  too concerned with trivialities of language at the expense not only of philosophical issues but also of practical matters of politics and individual conduct  (Salmon,  Renaissance and Revolt , 50).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius, [LAMBIN, Denis.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816162533711,"sku":"L3159","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190525_122819.jpg?v=1781794891"},{"product_id":"castiglione-baldassarre-2","title":"CASTIGLIONE, Baldassarre","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good, fresh copy of the first edition of a work which shaped and changed the culture of the European upper classes in the Renaissance. This edition is the  first and most sought after  (Brunet I, 1628),  handsome and rare  (Renouard 105:3). Of noble origins, Baldassarre Castiglione (1478-1529) studied  literae humaniores  at Milan and was at the service of the Sforza and Gonzaga before moving to the court of the Duke of Urbino. He spent the last few years of his life as Apostolic nuncio in Spain, where he died of the plague in 1529. It was the year before his death that the first edition of  Il libro del Cortegiano  appeared in print; its success was foreseen by Aldus who obtained a 10-year monopoly. The work celebrates the characteristics of the ideal aristocrat and  has remained the perfect definition of a gentleman ever since  (PMM 59). It was inspired by Castiglione s time at Urbino and his social interaction with influential personalities including courtiers, aristocrats and literati, by then mostly deceased. It was thus intended also as a celebration of their achievements since, as Castiglione said in the preface, the  loss of so many friends  had left him in a  painful solitude . In this dialogue, refined courtiers discuss the virtues (e.g., honesty, magnanimity and good manners) and social skills (e.g., foreign language proficiency, dancing and fencing) a perfect courtier should have, often inspired by classical antiquity, as well as the  sprezzatura  a fundamental nonchalance or  carelessness  guiding his every action. The resulting idea of  self-fashioning , or the crafting of a public persona following received standards, influenced, thanks to numerous translations, the behaviour of the European aristocracy for decades, especially in England where C16 literature and drama were imbued with the Italian ideals of the  cortegiano .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CASTIGLIONE, Baldassarre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816163352911,"sku":"L3112","price":32500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7384-scaled.jpg?v=1781794887"},{"product_id":"manuzio-paolo-1","title":"MANUZIO, Paolo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of one of the most influential Neo-Latin collections in early modern Europe. Paolo Manuzio (1512-1574) was a prominent humanist of the late Italian Renaissance. The youngest son of Aldus, he was a very influential scholar and publisher in his own right, living up to the family tradition. A master of the epistolary genre with very successful collections both in Latin and vernacular, he was especially engaged, as a scholar, in Latin literature. His commentaries on the works of Cicero and his polished Latin prose won him long-lasting fame throughout Europe. Under his management, the Aldine press flourished once again, after the dark times of the early 1530s. He also acted as the official printer to the Academia Venetiana between 1558 and 1561, while in the following nine years he ran the first papal press in Rome. This collection comprises several letters and prefaces written by Paolo to the Gotha of the political, religious and academic establishment of mid-sixteenth-century Italy. The work kept growing over the following 15 years until it included 12 books. However, some self-censorship took place in order to cope with the Indexes of forbidden books issued by Paul IV in 1559 and the Tridentine Council in 1564, so that a few letters appear here for the first, and only, time in their original form. As Renouard sarcastically glossed, Paolo claimed in the initial dedicatory letter that he decided to publish the present collection because of pressure from his fellow members of the Venetian Academy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MANUZIO, Paolo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820300640591,"sku":"L2279","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190313_173722.jpg?v=1781794848"},{"product_id":"manuzio-paolo-2","title":"MANUZIO, Paolo","description":"\u003cp\u003eAldine edition of an important Renaissance commentary on Cicero s most famous epistolary collection, first published in 1547. Paolo Manuzio (1512-1574) was one of the most prominent humanists of the late Italian Renaissance. The youngest son of Aldus, he was a very influential scholar and publisher in his own right, living up to the family tradition. A master of the epistolary genre with very successful collections both in Latin and vernacular, he was especially engaged as a scholar in Latin literature. His commentaries on the works of Cicero and his polished Latin prose won him long-lasting fame throughout Europe. Under his management, the Aldine press flourished once again, after the dark times of the early 1530s. He also acted as the official printer to the Academia Venetiana between 1558 and 1561, while in the following nine years he ran the first papal press in Rome. Cicero s letters to his friend Atticus, written from 68 to 44 BC and traditionally arranged in 16 books, provide an unparalleled insight not only into the author s daily life and always provoking thoughts, but also into the decades preceding the fall of the Roman Republic.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MANUZIO, Paolo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820305621327,"sku":"L2293b","price":1650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_6593e793-ca55-4c2b-abac-df61f8f48016.png?v=1781794849"},{"product_id":"vairo-leonardo-1","title":"VAIRO, Leonardo","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good copy of the first Aldine edition of this remarkable work on witchcraft by Leonardo Vairo (1523-1603), Benedictine monk and bishop of Pozzuoli. Not too long after printing, this copy entered the library of the Friars  Observant at San Paolo in Monte, near Bologna. This is the second edition, originally published in 1583. It is entirely devoted to  fascinum  ( fascination  or  charm ), a  pernicious quality summoned through intense imagination, sight, touch, voice, together or separately, as well as the observation of the sky, or inflicted through hate or love . With the help of authorities like Aristotle, Plutarch and Heliodorus, Vairo addresses the nature of fascination caused by external action (moral) or inherent qualities (natural). The work seeks to set apart the natural from the supernatural whilst discussing subjects like monstrous births, werewolves, the sabbath, the nature of daemonic powers, basilisks, the faculty of divination pertaining to some animals, supernatural prophecy and daemonic possession which may more frequently affect melancholic people.  De fascino  was still mentioned in C18 theological debates on witchcraft and the supernatural. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This edition concludes with the interesting priced catalogue of the  libri di stampa d Aldo  available for purchase in 1589. On the Aldines listed in this copy, an early annotator marked Bodin s  Trattato della Demonomania , probably as a desideratum.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VAIRO, Leonardo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820345991503,"sku":"L2612","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9271.jpg?v=1781794814"},{"product_id":"d-anania-giovanni-lorenzo","title":"D ANANIA, Giovanni Lorenzo","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good copy of the second Aldine edition of this important work on demonology, first published in 1581. Giovanni Lorenzo d Anania (1545-1609) was an Italian theologian and geographer, also the author of a famous  Cosmografia  (1576). Anania believed that witchcraft had been particularly active in his age and  De natura daemonum  provided a thorough study of the ways in which daemons were responsible. It theorises the existence and nature of subterranean and aerial malevolent spirits (from movement to voice) and studies how they affect human life as the cause of sundry physical and social ills: e.g., incurable diseases, earthquakes, false images generated through astrology and necromancy, and some poetic  fables . Fascinating are his remarks on exorcisms, a few of which he apparently witnessed, and miracles derived from saints  relics; these could be used to scare demons away (though not always successfully) and help treat serious illnesses. Despite Anania s Catholicism, the whole work is pervaded by mild Protestant leanings which surface, for instance, in his belief that demons encouraged people not to use their own vernaculars during mass as well as in his often ambivalent opinion on the a nature of relics (Thorndike VI, 528).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"D ANANIA, Giovanni Lorenzo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820346089807,"sku":"L2600","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9250.jpg?v=1781794814"},{"product_id":"pollux-julius","title":"POLLUX, Julius","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome copy of the  editio princeps  of this important Greek dictionary, from the library of a Milanese humanist who funded, in the 1490s, the printing of Greek incunabula. Bartolomeo Squassi (or Squasso, fl. 1490-1510) was secretary of Lodovico Sforza, then regent for Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan. With the ducal secretaries Vincenzo Aliprandi and Bartolomeo Rozzone, he contributed to the printing expenses of the  editio princeps  of Isocrates (Milan, 1493) and the Latin  Erotemata  (Milan, 1494), prepared by the major Greek scholar Demetrios Chalcondylas. In the colophon of the  Isocrates , as in the ex-libris in this copy, he appeared as . In 1494, Gian Galeazzo granted Squassi, Calchondylas, Aliprandi and Rozzone a ten-year privilege to print Greek and Latin works, which suggests that, like Calchondylas,  they too had acquired an excellent reputation as scholars of the classics  (Calvi,  Castello , 75). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The  Onomastikon , composed by the Greek grammarian Ioulios Polydeukes (Julius Pollux) in the second century AD, is a lexicon of phrases and synonyms in Attic dialect. Divided by subject, it includes invaluable information on ancient customs, mythology, and everyday life, touching on themes as varied as oracles, poetry, horses, trees, and navigation. This edition is prefaced by two indexes, in Latin and Greek. Squassi used it for practical purposes as he annotated sections on specific subjects including gods  names, temples, the eyes, body parts, the arts, musical instruments, dance, singing, games and theatre. He wrote on the margins the names of the ancient authors thereby mentioned (especially Aristophanes, Isocrates, Herodotus, Homer, Xenophon and Plato) as well as interesting nouns or verbs, sometimes in different grammatical forms. A handsome Greek Aldine of bibliographical interest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"POLLUX, Julius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820347924815,"sku":"L3391\/b","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9325.jpg?v=1781794806"},{"product_id":"sigonio-carlo-2","title":"SIGONIO, Carlo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A remarkable Aldine edition of Carlo Sigonio s fundamental work on Roman history, accompanied for the first time by an extensive commentary by the author. Sigonio s treatise on Roman names is included at the end.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .An Italian humanist and historian, Carlo Sigonio (1524-1584) was elected professor of Greek in Modena, his native city, in 1546. Later, he worked as a professor of humanities in Venice, Padua and Bologna. A scholar of Livy and Dionysus of Halicarnassus, Sigonio was already interested in the problem of Roman chronology when, in 1546, a mass of fragments of the monumental Fasti of Augustus was discovered in the Forum Romanorum in Rome. This new epigraphical document of great importance is at the basis of his  Fasti Consulares , a revised list of Roman kings, republican consuls, consular tribunes, censors, dictators and magistri equitum, with the triumphs they had celebrated, from the regal period to Tiberius. Sigonio s Fasti represents a crucial development to the previous chronologies based only on literary sources, and his  insistence on critical methods for reconstructing the past revolutionized the study of ancient Roman history  (McCuaig). A complete commentary on the Fasti was published in this 1556 edition for the first time, and it is essentially a manual of Roman history. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . De nominibus Romanorum liber  is a short but noteworthy treatise on Roman names. It begins with a presentation of the roman system of three names (praenomen, nomen, cognomen); then, it provides a list of all Roman personal and family names with an explanation of their geographical origin and etymological meaning. The etymology of the name Cesar is one of the most fascinating: Sigonio, quoting the grammarian Servius, notes that in the Punic language  Caesar  means elephant, and that this name was originally attributed to a man who killed an elephant during the Punic wars. This interpretation is accompanied by two woodcuts depicting a Roman coin with an elephant and the inscription  CAESAR  on one side, and weapons on the other side.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SIGONIO, Carlo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859634430287,"sku":"L3702a","price":1650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4975-copy.jpg?v=1781793784"},{"product_id":"castiglione-baldassarre-3","title":"CASTIGLIONE, Baldassarre.","description":"\u003cp\u003eProviding a correct text revised from the original manuscripts, and including three final indexes for the first time, this is the most complete and refined edition of  Il libro del Cortegiano  by the Aldine press.   \u003cbr\u003e\n Baldassarre Castiglione (1478-1529) studied  literae humaniores  in Milan and served the Sforza and Gonzaga before moving to the court of the Duke of Urbino.  Il Cortegiano , his masterpiece, is structured as a series of conversations that allegedly took place there, in one of the most elegant courts of Italy, over four nights in 1507, when Castiglione was a member of the Duke's Court. The philosophical dialogues are concerned with describing what constitutes the ideal courtier and   in the third book   the ideal court lady, worthy to befriend and advise a Prince or political leader. Nobility, wit, honesty, temperance and magnanimity are among the virtues that the perfect courtier should have, but he should also be well educated in Latin and Greek, skilled in dancing, fencing, painting and playing music. Above all qualities, however, Castiglione stresses the importance of oratory and clarity of speech: taking inspiration from Cicero and Quintilian, the perfect courtier should adapt his speech to the audience, be proficient in foreign languages such as French and Spanish, and be able to impress with his culture and sense of humour. Finally, the courtier should apply  sprezzatura  to everything he does, that is a certain  nonchalance  or ability to present what is done and said as if it was done without any effort.  The courtier depicts the ideal aristocrat, and it has remained the perfect definition of a gentleman ever since. It is an epitome of the highest moral and social ideas of the Italian Renaissance  (PMM 59).   \u003cbr\u003e\n With over 120 editions printed in the span of a century, and translated in English, French, Spanish, German and Latin within only 40 years from the princeps of 1528, Il libro del Cortegiano was the most successful Italian book in Europe during the XVI century. The enormous popularity of pocket-size editions, such as this, evidences the habit of bringing this book of manners along and consulting it. The final indexes include a list of the most remarkable subjects and a summary of the qualities required by ideal courtiers and ladies. Specific qualities listed for court ladies are kindness, affability with men, strength of character and beauty.  It seems reasonable to argue that the rise of the learned lady in Italy between 1540 and 1560 shows the influence of Castiglione s dialogue   in contrast to tradition, Castiglione presents ladies in a role other than that of mother, daughter or wife  (Burke).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CASTIGLIONE, Baldassarre.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859634495823,"sku":"L3707","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-5_75c78e27-7a6a-4fc1-94ec-cc55b3c6096e.jpg?v=1781793783"},{"product_id":"brancaccio-giulio-cesare","title":"BRANCACCIO, Giulio Cesare.","description":"\u003cp\u003eOnly Aldine edition of this famous military manual. Giulio Cesare Brancaccio (1515-86) lived the life of the  ideal courtier  in northern Italy, as a gentleman-soldier, actor, singer (at the court of Ferrara) and writer. Alfonso d Este allegedly imposed as a condition on Brancaccio s coming that he should not brag about his military achievements (Newcomb,  The Madrigal , 95), of which he was notoriously proud, after his campaigns with Charles V, Henry II and Francis I, as well as the Spaniards in Tunis, across the 1550s-70s.  Il Brancatio , from its original title, was first published in 1582; this edition was a reprint. It is based on an abridged translation of Julius Caesar s  De bello gallico   no less useful than necessary to those who wish to know the true military discipline and art . After a long dedication  to Princes , Brancaccio presents a short treatise on the legions and arms of the Romans. The following chapters include extracts marked  Cesare , with an excerpt from  De bello gallico  usually focusing on specific battles, each followed by an  avvertimento  by Brancaccio, based on his military experience, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the winners and the defeated. The work attempted  to bridge the gap in C16 military theory between simple translations of Latin treatises, which had been the staple fare for professional officers for at least the past hundred years, and practical contemporary experience, through which to mediate classical theory and modern realities  (Wistreich,  Warrior , 115). Aldus the Younger kept in his personal library a ms. copy of this work (Russo,  Machiavelli , 254) the only military one by a contemporary author, and one of only three on this subject, printed by the Aldine press.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRANCACCIO, Giulio Cesare.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859639509327,"sku":"L3377\/2","price":2650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L33772-3.jpg?v=1781793773"},{"product_id":"manutius-paulus-6","title":"MANUTIUS, Paulus.","description":"\u003cp\u003eValuable first edition of Paulus Manutius s learned and celebrated commentary on the 16 books of Cicero s letters to his closest friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. The youngest son of Aldus, Paulus (1512-1574) was a very influential publisher and one of the most prominent humanists of the Late Italian Renaissance. A master of the epistolary genre with very successful collections both in Latin and vernacular, he was especially engaged in Latin literature, and a passionate Ciceronian. His outstanding reputation as a scholar was built upon his editions and commentaries on the works of Cicero:  no man had a juster conception of the beauties of this great Roman orator and philosopher, and no man has more successfully imitated his style  (Dibdin). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The greatest orator of the Late Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer and scholar. Although he was a  homo novus , namely the first in his family to achieve public office, he soon became one of the leading political figures of the era of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Marc Antony and Octavian.  Perhaps the most valuable of Cicero s surviving works are the letters, such a vivid commentary on the last years of the Roman Republic as we have of no other period of ancient times. Here alone, devoid of formality, the character of Cicero and his contemporaries can be seen; and a picture appears of life two thousand years ago ( ) all the domestic detail which is elsewhere lacking ( ) historical facts that would otherwise have been lost or deliberately concealed.  (PMM). Written over the course of many years from 65BC onwards and compiled by Cicero s personal secretary Marcus Tullius Tiro, the letters to Atticus are frequently written in a subtle code to mask their political content. In his impressively detailed commentary Manutius is clearly aware of this, discussing the implications of certain names and places thoroughly, explaining their relationships to each other and explaining historical and social significance as appropriate. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Interesting provenance.  Johan Berck  was most likely Johan (Jan) Berck (1565-1627). Council secretary and pensionary of Dordrecht (Netherlands) in 1590s, he was appointed first Dutch ambassador to Venice in 1622, from where he returned to Dordrecht in 1627. Berck was an educated man who studied Law in Leiden. The first edition of  Ars Historica  by the renowned Dutch theologian Gerardus Vossius, printed in Leiden in 1623, is dedicated to him. Berck s chaplain during the Venetian period was Andreas Colvius, a learned man and correspondent of Decartes who spent his time in Venice collecting books and manuscripts. It seems that Berck shared Colvius  passion for books and brought this copy back to the Netherlands with him. In the 18th century, this volume was owned by  M. Johannes Ehrenricus Koch , very likely the German scholar M. Johann Ehrenreich Koch, from Wittenberg in Saxony: his name is recorded in a list of academics of the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel (Holstein, Germany) under the year 1720. He was born in Wittenberg, where he obtained his master s degree in 1709. Unfortunately, his career as a professor was not particularly successful and his class remained  empty without an audience for two years . After receiving  a gift of 800 Reichstalers  in 1733, he resigned. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A good copy of this remarkable first Aldine edition, with an interesting ownership history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MANUTIUS, Paulus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859640721743,"sku":"L3718","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3718-2.jpg?v=1781793753"},{"product_id":"cicero-marcus-tullius-8","title":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius.","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharming Aldine edition of Cicero s rhetorical works, including a detailed commentary (scholia) by Paulus Manutius. The youngest son of Aldus, Paulus (1512-1574) was a very influential publisher and one of the most prominent humanists of the Late Italian Renaissance. He was especially engaged in Latin literature, and a passionate Ciceronian. His outstanding reputation as a scholar was built upon his editions and commentaries on the works of Cicero:  no man had a juster conception of the beauties of this great Roman orator and philosopher, and no man has more successfully imitated his style  (Dibdin). The text of Cicero, revised and corrected by Paulus, is reproduced from the 1546 edition, and the commentary from 1564. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The greatest orator of the Late Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer and scholar. Although he was a  homo novus , namely the first in his family to achieve public office, he soon became one of the leading political figures of the era of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Marc Antony and Octavian. Defined by Quintilian as  eloquence itself , he put his legal skills to the service of politics. This volume is a remarkable collection of his works on rhetoric, in which he presents the canons of this complex discipline, its history, and teaches how to use it. The first three works are often referred to as Cicero s  Rhetoric Trilogy .  De Oratore  (55 BC), a platonic dialogue in three books, is a detailed exposition of the moral qualities, skills and techniques required by the ideal orator, as well as a presentation of rhetoric as a form of art.  De Claris Oratoribus  (46 BC), also a dialogue, is a history of eloquence which illustrates the personalities of great orators, predecessors and contemporaries of Cicero. More commonly known as  Brutus , one of its protagonists is Marcus Brutus who, less than two years later, stabbed Julius Caesar to death.  Orator  (46 BC) is a continuation of the debate between Cicero and Brutus, in which the author defines the three goals of rhetoric as  docere, delectare, et movere , that is,  to teach, entertain and move  the audience. The fourth and last work is  De optimo genere oratorum  (46 BC), a brief treatise in which Cicero defends his oratorical style and anticipates some of the ideas developed and expanded in his later  De Oratore .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859640754511,"sku":"L3737","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-23-copy.jpg?v=1781793752"},{"product_id":"cicero-3","title":"CICERO","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Attractive and important Aldine edition of Cicero s  Epistolae familiares , the first to include Paulus Manutius  scholia, in a contemporary probably French binding. Although the design of the blind stamped covers and the type of calf suggests an English or Flemish manufacture, the fine blind stamped roll and its numerous variations appear on bindings realised in Paris and the regions of eastern France during the first half of the 16.th. century (roll: see Gid.,  Catalogue des reliures françaises  Vol II, pl. 64-66; French bindings with the roll: Gid, Vol. I,  no. 136-183, atelier: Paris; no. 61, atelier: Lyon; n. 178-179, atelier: Eastern France). The roll is not recorded by Oldham. Similar richly gilt and gauffered edges are found on southern European luxury volumes. The gilt title and the initials  T.F.  are English in style; unfortunately, we were unable to uncover the identity of this early owner. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .This edition of the epistles is the second by Paulus (first 1533), and it includes an entirely revised and improved text, new title, preface and a new remarkable 50-page detailed commentary (scholia). The youngest son of Aldus, Paulus (1512-1574) was an influential publisher and one of the most prominent humanists of the Late Italian Renaissance. He was especially engaged in Latin literature and his outstanding reputation as a scholar was built upon his editions and commentaries on the works of Cicero:  no man had a juster conception of the beauties of this great Roman orator and philosopher, and no man has more successfully imitated his style  (Dibdin).  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . Ad familiares  (Letters to friends), in 16 books, is one of four collections of Cicero s correspondence, first compiled and published by Cicero s personal secretary Marcus Tullius Tiro. It includes letters between the celebrated orator and series of public (e.g. Pompey and Cesar) and private figures (e.g. Cicero s wife Terentia). Among them is the famous letter of consolation from the consul Servius Sulpicius Rufus on the death of the orator s daughter Tullia (Fam. IV, 5). Another one is from Cicero to Lucius Minucius Basilus, a conspirator in Caesar s murder:  I congratulate you. I rejoice for myself. I love you. I watch your interests. I wish for your love and to be informed of what you are doing and what is being done  (Fam. VI. 15). . Ad familiares    together with . Ad Atticum ,  Ad Brutum  and  At Quintum Fratrem    is .among the most valuable sources of historical information on the years 68-43 BC, and there is no other period of antiquity for which we still possess such an immediate and intimate record and in such domestic detail. The vast corpus of Ciceronian Epistolae and Orationes was for a long time used as foundation texts in early modern schools. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The greatest orator of the Late Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer and scholar. Although he was a  homo novus , namely the first in his family to achieve public office, he soon became one of the leading political figures of the era of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Marc Antony and Octavian. Defined by Quintilian as  eloquence itself , he put his legal skills to the service of politics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CICERO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859654353231,"sku":"L3769","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3769-3.jpg?v=1781793714"},{"product_id":"pomponius-mela-iulius-solinus-vibius-sequester-publius-victor-and-dionisius-periegetes","title":"POMPONIUS MELA, IULIUS SOLINUS, VIBIUS SEQUESTER, PUBLIUS VICTOR and DIONISIUS PERIEGETES.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Attractive copy of this Aldine collection of classical works on geography, in a lovely, very well-preserved contemporary northern-Italian binding. The arabesque ornaments on the covers of the volume, and their variations, were predominantly used in Venice at the beginning of the 16.th. century (See Needham 35; De Marinis 1797bis, 1921), but they also appear on Milanese bindings (combined with ropework border: see Davis III, 244; bound for Jean Grolier: Needham 41). Ropework decorations are typical of northern Italy, but the ornate border on this binding is a particularly intricate and fine example..  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Pomponius Mela (d. c. 45) was the first Roman geographer and his  De situs orbis  is the earliest preserved treatise on geography in Latin.  Though the work was largely a borrowing from Greek sources ( ), it was unique among the ancient geographies in that it divided the Earth, which Mela placed at the centre of the universe, into five zones: a northern frigid zone, a northern temperate zone, a torrid zone, a southern temperate zone, and a southern frigid zone.  (Encyclopedia Britannica). The treatise focuses on the known world, outlining a journey across North Africa, Asia and finally Europe. The contemporary marginalia to this work are interesting: a reader corrected the spelling of several geographical names and annotated different readings on the basis of other sources such as Strabo and Ptolemy.  Polihistor  is by the grammarian Julius Solinus (c. 210-258). Also known as  De mirabilibus mundi ,  On the wonders of the world , this is an influential compilation   largely drawing from Mela, Pliny and Suetonius   of the most curious facts concerning the peoples, regions, plants and animals of the world, beginning from Rome and moving on to the Mediterranean, northern Africa, Near East and India. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . Itinerarium Antonini , by an unknown author, can be described as a  road map  of the Roman Empire in the III century AD, containing a register of all the stations along the major roads and their distances. This is followed by Vibius Sequester s alphabetical list of geographical names mentioned by Latin poets (Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Silius Italicus), comprising rivers, springs, lakes, forests, marshes, mountains and peoples.  De regionibus Urbis Romae  is a brief list of all the important buildings, streets and bridges that can be found in different areas of Rome, spuriously attributed to a fictitious Publius Victor. Last in the collection is a Latin verse translation of Dionysius Periegetes   Description of the world , by the grammarian Priscian. This collection was edited Aldus  brother-in-law, Gian Francesco Torresani d Asola (c. 1498-1558).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"POMPONIUS MELA, IULIUS SOLINUS, VIBIUS SEQUESTER, PUBLIUS VICTOR and DIONISIUS PERIEGETES.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859654484303,"sku":"L3575c","price":11000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3575c-1.jpg?v=1781793714"},{"product_id":"sallust-2","title":"SALLUST","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Attractive first Aldine edition of the major works of Sallust, in a handsome contemporary Venetian binding. Venice was the first city in Europe to produce gold-tooled bindings, introducing new styles and methods from the Islamic world of the Near East. The gilt design on the covers is stylistically similar to several Aldines, and variations of the fine floral roll appear frequently on Venetian bindings of the period (similar Aldines: see De Marinis II, 1660 and Foot, III, 278: floral roll, see De Marinis II, 1873, 1884, 1894)..  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .This edition was  compiled with great care, and throw[s] considerable light on Sallust  (Dibdin). In the dedication to general Bartolomeo Liviano (1455-1515), Aldus explains that the text of Sallust   De coniuratione Catilianae  and  De bello Iughurtino  was edited from two antique manuscripts brought to him from Paris by the humanists Giovanni Lascaris and Giovanni Giocondo. The first work ( Catiline s War ) depicts the corruption in Roman policy through an account of Lucius Sergius Catilina s attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic in the year 63 BC. The second ( Jugurthine War ) records the war against Jugurtha in Numidia from c. 112 to 105 BC, exploring the party struggles that arose in Rome and introducing the rivalry between Marius and Sulla for the first time. This edition also includes Cicero s Catilinarian orations, eight orations by Sallust from his larger work  Historiae  and a series of works today considered spurious. These are: an invective upon Cicero ( Oratio contra Ciceronem ) attributed to Sallust, Cicero s response (Oratio contra Sallustium), and an invective upon Catilina attributed to the rhetor Marcus Porcius Latro. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86-35 BC) was a Roman historian and politician, and his works are the oldest surviving historical texts in Latin that can be attached to a known author. An  homo novus  born to a plebeian family, he was a partisan of Caesar during the Civil War of 49 45 BC, an opponent to the old Roman aristocracy and a critic of the moral decline of Rome. Sallust was influenced by the Greek Thucydides and he is the first Latin historian to delineate the characters of historical figures and to explain the connections and meaning of historical events.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .This copy bears an early ex-libris of  Joanis Compustella  (likely the Italian  Giovanni Compostella ) and his friends. The Compostella family was an ancient and noble family of Bassano (a city not far from Venice), originally from Spain and known in the Veneto region since 1175 (Enciclopedia storico-nobiliare italiana, Vol II, 1981, p. 520).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SALLUST","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859654648143,"sku":"L3575d","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_1906.jpg?v=1781793714"},{"product_id":"falletti-gerolamo","title":"FALLETTI, Gerolamo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.An attractive, well-margined copy of the first Aldine edition of this interesting collection of Neo-Latin poems, including one on the wars of Charles V in the Low Countries. Gerolamo Falletti (d.1564) studied at Louvain and Ferrara, earning the patronage of Ercole II and Alfonso II d Este. He was later a diplomat for the Serenissima, one of his duties being a visit to Poland after the death of Sigismund I. Dedicated to Ercole II,  De Bello Sicambrico  is a poetic account in 4 books of the siege of Guelders by Charles V in 1542-3. Imbued with humanistic classicism and Virgilian influences, the poem is based on Falletti s first-hand account of the Emperor s attacks against Antwerp and other cities, he took part in the defence of Louvain whilst a student there. The remainder of the collection includes dozens of poems addressed to major personalities of the time, especially Venetian, whom Falletti knew, and concerning specific occasions. For instance, the author Bartolomeo Ricci (who published  De imitatione  with Manutius), Francesco Venier (for whom he provides an obituary), Olimpia Colonna (wife to the Venetian aristocrat Enea Martinengo), and members of the Este family.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The near contemporary annotator glossed 5 poems in Books VI and VII, and corrected Latin typos throughout. The first annotated poem concerns probably Hippolitus Riminaldus, a Ferrara jurist; the following three, the Flemish poet Nicolaus Grudius, and the fifth, Alfonso d Este. The annotator clarified the classical references in the text (to the Argonauts, Orpheus, etc.), as well as rhetorical techniques employed by Falletti (e.g.,  comparatio ,  hortatio ,  prosopopeia ).  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .This copy was in the library of the famous British archaeologist and bibliophile Thomas Ashby (1874-1931), also the first student and honorary librarian of the British School in Rome.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FALLETTI, Gerolamo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859657400655,"sku":"L3770","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3770-3.jpg?v=1781793707"},{"product_id":"fumo-bartolomeo","title":"FUMO, Bartolomeo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good copy of the second edition of this  pocket  compendium of canon law. Legal Aldines are uncommon. The Dominican theologian Bartolomeo Fumo (d.1545), was inquisitor in Piacenza, where the  Summa  was first published in 1549. Popular and much reprinted, it is a compendium of cases of conscience, i.e., a manual detailing, in 504 sections, with the ethical and moral conundrums priests and confessors were most likely to encounter, and which they had to address according to ecclesiastical law. The present copy was in the library of a Franciscan monastery near Rieti, in Italy. The work is prefaced by a copious index for easy consultation. In addition to topics such as the capital sins, sacraments, excommunication and the regulations of marriage (illustrated by an  arbor consanguinitatis  showing the degrees of kinship between spouses allowed by the Church), one also finds hundreds of situations of family law (e.g., adultery, bigamy, financial debt towards one s spouse, inheritance),  anti-social  behaviour (e.g., bestiality, sodomy, fornication, incest, murder, prostitution), or activities that contravene Christian doctrines. Among these are alchemy   an  art that is not itself illicit, if done without fraud, nor is it a sin to sell what is produced through alchemy, unless one is selling something which is actually not what it looks like    and necromancy, a mortal sin of  divination through demons who take the shape of dead people . Most interesting is the section, one of several which focus on specific professions or offices, about the proper conduct of physicians:  Physicians may sin in many ways.  Mortal sins for doctors include ignoring an ailment, requiring extortionate fees, refusing to research an illness they are unfamiliar with, or to visit or administer medicaments, distributing remedies that are  not prepared according to the art of medicine, but according to their stolid fantasy and experiments , and refusing to urge very sick patients to receive confession, depending also on whether the physician is wealthy or paid by the community. A remarkable glimpse into the everyday mid-C16 life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FUMO, Bartolomeo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859668705615,"sku":"L4078","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_0922-copy.jpg?v=1781793681"},{"product_id":"bembo-pietro-1","title":"BEMBO, Pietro.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.The woodcut frame with the ms arms and initials of Cardinal Bembo is curious. We have not found any other example. A link between the Grillenzoni and Bembo is Lodovico Castelvetro, who was known to both, wrote a commentary to Bembo s  Prose , and lived in Modena until 1553. The woodcut frame is C16 in style, and was not infrequently used by prelates of the time. The bleeding from the edge paint shows it was there before the current binding. It is possible that these were added by the author to his own copy of the text, it is equally possible they were added by or for a friend or admirer, maybe the known early owner Grillenzoni which is consistent with the presentation quality of the copy. It is unlikely they are either accidental or a deliberate attempt at faking at such an early date.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\nA clean, well-margined copy of the first edition of Pietro Bembo s  History of Venice  -  the culmination of Venice s official historiography  (Mazzocco) - with a chapter on the discovery of America and Portuguese eastern expeditions. Cardinal Bembo (1470-1547) was a major poet and scholar, whose  Prose della volgar lingua  greatly influenced the development of Tuscan as a literary language, rekindling interest in Petrarch and Dante. Bembo wrote  Historiae Venetae  - a history of Venice from 1487 to 1513 - as official historiographer of the Serenissima; he also made an Italian translation, both were published after his death. Bembo was granted permission to consult  material of the chancellery, the books of the secret affairs, and the records of the deliberations of the Council of Ten  (Mazzocco, pp.99-100). Book VI includes a 5-page narrative of Columbus s travels and discoveries till 1502, prefaced by a summary of cosmographical theories of the time and how Columbus s ideas differed. This is followed by a section on Portuguese discoveries including Magellan s travels, in Africa (Cape of Good Hope) and Asia. Book VII features what may be the first description of Eskimos (though not so called) -  short, of a darkish complexion, with clothes made of fish skin, who ate raw meat and drank blood  - found stranded on a wicket boat off the English coast. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\nThe late C16 annotator   Giovanni Battista Grillenzoni   glossed  Columbus  and  Maglaianes  (Magellan) on the margin. He translated some of Bembo s Latin into Italian, in marginal glosses. Grillenzoni was a member of the major Modenese family; two more books from his library   Medina s  Arte del Navegar  (1554) and Magini s  Ephemerides  (1582)   are preserved at the Bib. Estense, in Modena.  .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BEMBO, Pietro.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868673679695,"sku":"L4208","price":6750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4208-2.jpg?v=1781793657"},{"product_id":"quintilian-2","title":"QUINTILIAN.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good, well-margined, clean copy of the second Aldine edition of Quintilian s most influential manual of rhetoric. Edited by Naugerius and G.B. Ramusio, it includes a new table of Greek words, absent in the first. The text is modelled on that of the 1515 Giunta edition. Quintilian s  Institutio Oratoria  was the main text for the study of classical rhetoric until way into the C18    the most complete and detailed collection of the historical development of theories and techniques of communication in Greece and Rome up to the first century  (Celentano, p.361). ..Written in the 1.st. century AD and rediscovered in 1416, it introduced students to the basic principles of rhetoric, e.g., orations, their elements, tropes and figures of speech. Issued without the editor s preface, it begins with Quintilian s own letter to his publisher, Trypho, who had allegedly been pressing him to finish his work   the result of 20 years of teaching   on the best education of the orator. The 12 books deal with preparatory material, the nature of rhetoric and its elements (inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, actio), the character of the orator, and how he should study, prepare and argue his cases.  The Institutio has been described as four major works blended into one: a treatise on education, a manual of rhetoric, a reader s guide to the best authors, and a handbook on the moral duties of the perfect orator  (Murphy, p.59). Innocentio Doion was likely a member of the influential aristocratic Doglioni family, from Belluno. In 1625, he is recorded as one of the witnesses at the reading of the Bishop of Belluno s will. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"QUINTILIAN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868675711311,"sku":"L2136","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_0538-copy.jpg?v=1781793651"},{"product_id":"colonna-francesco-1","title":"COLONNA, Francesco.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first and only incunable edition of this example of finest Renaissance book production, and a masterpiece of woodcut illustration. Rated as ‚Äòthe most beautiful book of the fifteenth century‚Äô (Mortimer, p.131), it is also one of Aldus‚Äôs only seven illustrated books (Gibbs, ‚ÄòAldus‚Äô, p.109). ‚ÄòUniversally revered as a landmark in C15 typography‚Äô (Harris). The absence of the errata leaf and the 4 preliminaries including an additional or substitutional titlepage, may indicate a first or early issue. Two woodblocks contain what are now considered the first Arabic words to appear in print, carved on a stone and over three doorways. ‚ÄòWhile the script of the first inscription recalls Islamic bookish hands, that of the second reprises the use of calligraphy in Arabic-Islamic culture, with the practise of inscribing monuments and artefacts‚Äô (Piemontese, p.207).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe woodcuts, in fresh, early impression in this copy, changed the history of Western book illustration and art, influencing the likes of Titian and the Carracci as well as the C16 French school after the work‚Äôs translation in 1546. Scholars have suggested that they were not designed in Aldus‚Äôs workshop, but were already present in the ms that reached him; their authorship has been linked to Mantegna, Alberti or Benedetto Bordon; certainly to a northern Italian artist. An anonymous cutter transferred them onto woodblocks in Venice. Scholars have suggested that, in order to portray classical monuments, ruins and epigraphic inscriptions so vividly and in detail, the illustrator had access to drawings of ancient monuments discovered in Rome; their appearance dates the illustrations to 1470-95 (Huelsen, ‚ÄòIllustrazioni‚Äô, 175-6).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis majestic work, both in conception and production, has been attributed to Francesco Colonna (1433-1527), an Italian Dominican. The plot‚ÄîPolifilo‚Äôs quest for his love, Polia, through a dreamlike world, narrated in the first person‚Äîis framed within a complex setting based on classical allegory, emblems and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The language is an unusual Latinate Italian. It begins with Polifilo‚Äôs walk into a Dantesque ‚Äòdark wood‚Äô infested by snakes and wolves, and it follows him through allegorical landscapes with enormous pyramids surmounted by statues, obelisks sitting on the back of elephants, pedestals with ancient inscriptions or sculpted scenes‚Äîall handsomely depicted in the accompanying woodcuts. What makes the ‚ÄòHypnerotomachia‚Äô unique is the ‚Äòoverall composition of text and image into a harmonious whole, which allows the eye to slip back and forth between textual description and corresponding visual representation [‚Ķ].  It is the first experimental montage of fragments of prose, typography, epigrams, and pictures [‚Ķ] an extraordinary visual-typographical-textual ‚Äúassemblage‚Äù of a type not repeated until the avant-garde books of the 1920s and 1930s‚Äô (Lefaivre, ‚Äò‚ÄúHypnerotomachia‚Äù‚Äô, 17). It was also the first published book where the illustrations consistently appeared on the same page as the text they illustrated.\u003c\/p\u003e  \n\n \u003cp\u003eThe gilt ducal shield probably belongs to the Salviati, a prominent Florentine family since c.1400. In the C18, their very fine library, which included dozens of important medieval mss, was part bequeathed to Giovan Vincenzo‚Äôs son, later 6th Duke, Averardo (1721-83), and part sold. A c.1700 armorial ink stamp very similar in design to ours appears on selected books and mss which had been in the Salviati library since the C15. The C18 binding and the ‚ÄòA‚Äô point to Averardo.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"COLONNA, Francesco.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868676661583,"sku":"K172","price":125000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2-copy.jpg?v=1781793647"},{"product_id":"catullus-gaius-valerius-tibullus-albius-propertius-sextus-with-lucanus","title":"CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, TIBULLUS, Albius, PROPERTIUS, Sextus. [with] LUCANUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.The charming binding was probably produced in Bologna c.1530-40 by the Pflug and Ebeleben binder. To that workshop are also attributed two bindings at the Bib. dell'Archiginnasio (16.i.III.7, 4.Q.V.27), which share the same blind roll of vine leaves, a typically Bolognese motif. The early owner, Sante Voconio, is indeed recorded at Bologna in the 1530s. His vernacular literary skills   of which we have a rare ms example in this copy ( Quand io veggio la terra \/ Vestir dinuovo in falda un bianco ...) - were commended by the Italian scholar Claudio Tolomei (1492-1556) in his printed correspondence. Although he offered to facilitate the printing of Voconio s works, nothing has apparently survived. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Very good copy of this Aldine first edition (first issue) of the poems of Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius the three most important elegiac authors of the late Roman republic and early imperial era.  The ed. Of 1502 was composed by Aldus and Aavantius; the former wrote the preface, the latter the epistle, at the end of Catullus, to Marino Sanudo, a Venetian nobleman  (Dibdin). First printed by Wendelin of Speyer in Venice in 1472, Catullus, Propertius and Tibullus s poems revealed a new poetic feeling rejecting the heroic character of the epic tradition in favour of a more familiar tone and intimate subjects like love, erotic desire, rejection and mourning. Catullus s (84-54BC)  carmina , 116 of which are extant, include verse on his love and desire for  Lesbia , and lampoons against public figures like Julius Caesar. Tibullus  (55-19BC) verse survives in four books, only the first two of which are of safe attribution, and is mostly devoted to his intense and star-crossed love for the married  Delia . Propertius (c.50-15BC) enjoyed the protection of Maecenas and Augustus and is most famous for his four books of poems, many written for his beloved  Cynthia . This  elegiac collection  format was successfully republished in Europe throughout the century. Bound together is a copy of the first Aldine edition of  Pharsalia , an epic poem by the 1st-century Roman author Lucan on the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, a complex blend of fiction and historical reality. This ed. is 'formed chiefly on the Venetian one of 1493, with the commentaries of Sulpitius; but Aldus in his preface mentions some corrections wich are made from an ancient and valuable ms. communicated to him by Mauroceno, to whom he dedicates the work  (Dibdin)..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, TIBULLUS, Albius, PROPERTIUS, Sextus. [with] LUCANUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868695372111,"sku":"L4228","price":18500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/5B7DF85E-4676-438F-A1B9-3CDA7B21F62C.webp?v=1781793459"},{"product_id":"vico-enea-1","title":"VICO, Enea","description":"\u003cp\u003e.The first edition of Natale Conti s (1520-1582) Latin translation of Vico s 1557 Le imagini delle donne avgvste, dedicated by the author (1523-67) to cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg .(1543-73). .Vico was an Italian engraver from Parma, who specialised in grotesque engravings based on antique paintings.. .Here he breaks away to use coins as his source material, depicting the key female figures of the Roman imperial court, spanning the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties, from the late 1.st. C BC until 96AD. Each portrait comprises a roundel, set in an elaborate classical architectural scene, bearing the side profile of each woman, accompanied by her title. Their hair is dressed in the contemporary fashion, following authentic Roman numismatic material, though the engravings are elevated to a higher degree of detail, as seen in the ornate plaits, thanks to the greater precision allowed by the medium as compared to coinage. A few roundels are blank, likely due to the lack of numismatic source material, including Cossutia, the first wife of Caesar, Servilia, the first wife of Augustus, and the daughters of Agrippa and Drusus, both named Julia. In addition to the portraits, there are also some engravings of other coins which were minted during their lifetime. Agrippina the Younger s apparition on the obverse of two coins, together with her son Nero, is particularly striking.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Each engraving is accompanied by a corresponding biography, both executed by Vico. The biographies differ largely in length, depending on the attention given to each individual in the ancient sources. At the beginning of the book, Vico lists his all his sources, looking to historians, poets, playwrights, satirists, and philosophers to retrieve biographical information. Livia, Messalina and both Agrippina the Elder and Younger are treated with particular attention. Furthermore, the women are categorised in various ways, for instance, Vico provides a list of those who achieved posthumous divine honours, equalling and sometimes surpassing the men who surrounded them.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The translator, Conti, was an Italian mythographer, poet, humanist and historian, whose interest in the classical world is evident in his major work, the .Mythologiae. .Though born in Milan, he described himself as Venetian as he spent his life working in the city. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VICO, Enea","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868699664719,"sku":"L4435","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250213_154027-copy.jpg?v=1781793448"},{"product_id":"san-juan-juan-huarte-de-camilli-camillo-trans","title":"SAN JUAN, Juan Huarte de; CAMILLI, Camillo, trans.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe second, expanded Aldine edition of the Italian translation of this intriguing work bringing together psychology and medicine. Juan Huarte de San Juan (1529-88) was a Spanish humanist and physician who trained at Alcal‚àö¬∞. First published in Spanish in 1575,  Examen de ingegnos  was his great masterpiece. The 'Essame  was included on the Index as a prohibited book   at least by 1605, the present copy has a ms  Libro proibito  on the titlepage. Nevertheless it was greatly successful, translated into several European languages (including German by the philosopher G.E. Lessing), and even English. Huarte used as a starting point the humanist pedagogical theories, to explore, with the help of Galenic medicine, the concept of talent,  its diversity and richness, and how it affects the development of an individual in the professional sphere  (Morilla, p.161). It begins with a discussion of  ingenium , various kinds of intelligence, and how the humours influence individual character and temperament. The first section demonstrates with an example how, if a child does not have the intelligence required for knowledge he has to acquire, not even good teachers, lots of books, and constant study will make him succeed. There follow sections on how and why some people are good at learning, and how this is helped by specific physical characteristics. Three chapters also explain how specific kinds of intelligence and memory may favour children for professions in the fields of theology, law, medicine, the military or royalty. These chapters examine physiology and diet in relation with  ingenium , seeking  to align each temperament with a kind of intelligence  (Morilla, p.164). A chapter is devoted to ways of having intelligent children who will benefit from education, with specific instructions on physical procreation, the most appropriate environment so that they may be born male, not female, and how their intelligence may be preserved as they grow up. A most interesting, most unusual work, in many ways ahead of its time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SAN JUAN, Juan Huarte de; CAMILLI, Camillo, trans.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868707823951,"sku":"L4333","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250123_123136-copy.jpg?v=1781793426"},{"product_id":"plutarch-8","title":"PLUTARCH.","description":"\u003cp\u003eGreek  editio princeps  and first edition in any language of this foundation text of ancient scholarship and ethics, taken into the highest esteem by generations of Western thinkers, Montaigne above all. A remarkably large paper copy which, Renouard suggests, is technically a 4to, due to the horizontal chain lines, but virtually a folio, as the original paper sheets, printed as half-sheets, were the largest ever used by Aldus.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Plutarch (c.46-120 AD) was the most acclaimed Greek intellectual of his age. Born from a wealthy Boeotian family in Chaeronea, there he spent much of his life, serving as priest of Apollo in Delphi. His series of parallel biographies of famous Greek and Roman personalities won him long-lasting fame. His several other short essays are gathered under the title of  Moralia , showing all the extent of his knowledge. They include major and minor philosophical questions (most famously, whether the hen or the egg came first), religious, political and historical dissertations (on Iris and Osiris; the decline of oracles; Alexander the Great s fortune and virtues; on music; Herodotus  methodological shortcomings; on monarchy, democracy and oligarchy), lighter interludes like the dialogue between Odysseus and one of the wretched men turned by Circes into pigs, and more philosophical or physical studies such as the essays on hearing, chance, the control of anger, brotherly love, talkativeness, table talk and Stoicism.  \u003cbr\u003e\n The relatively late appearance of the  Moralia  into print in respect of Plutarch s  Lives  is probably due to the difficulty in establishing a good Greek text. The edition, planned by Aldus since 1506, was eventually accomplished with the help of Erasmus, Girolamo Aleandro and the Greek scholar and later printer Demetrios Ducas, who was the main editor. In his preface, Ducas is forced to admit that the C13 ms he had mainly relied on was so corrupt that he resolved to leave many passages as unintelligible as they originally stood. Much of the textual work took place directly at the press, so that  the process of criticism and emendation did not precede that of printing but advanced jerkily alongside it, step by alternating step [...]. Printing classical texts was first and last an exercise in improvisation  (Lowry,  The World of Aldus , p.240). In the dedication to Jacopo Antiquario, Aldus recollects his short stay in Milan, while he is hailed as the  saviour of the Greek language  at the very beginning of Ducas  Greek preface. \u003cbr\u003e\n  An attractive and desirable copy.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne (1728-1800), of Trawsgoed, Cardiganshire, also Viscount Lisburne (1766-76), was a Welsh politician and peer. \u003cbr\u003e\n Henry John Beresford Clements (1869-1940), of Killadoon, County Kildare and Lough Rynn, County Leitrim,  collected a very fine collection of armorial bookbindings which he bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and wrote about the subject, and lectured on it to the Bibliographical Society of London shortly before his death  (Brit. Arm. Bookbind.).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PLUTARCH.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868709658959,"sku":"L2097","price":39500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"cicero-marcus-tullius-10","title":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius.","description":"\u003cp\u003e'The best Aldine Cicero, and quite rare  (Brunet), in a uniform set. One of the most influential figures of classical antiquity, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) put his legal skills to the service of politics with speeches which became landmarks of forensic oratory. Defined by Quintilian as  eloquence itself , his copious prose production occupied a fundamental place in medieval syllabi. Subsequent to the rediscovery of further texts, including the letters, by scholars like Petrarch, Cicero contributed to forging the Latin style of the Renaissance and its ideas on political theory (e.g., Republicanism), rhetoric (e.g., the principles of argument, eloquence and invention) and philosophy (e.g., Stoicism). The first vol. comprises his greatly influential  ad Herennium , by then presented as probably spurious ( incerto auctore ), as well as  De inventione  and  Topica  (how to construct arguments in structure and content), and  De partitione oratoria  on oratory techniques. The second vol. begins with  De oratore , an immensely influential analysis of how a good orator should construct persuasive arguments which should however be driven by sound ethical principles. There follow  De claris oratoribus , a history of eloquence through individual figures including Pericles and Solon, and  Orator , a description of the perfect orator integrating observations in previous works. All were edited by Paulus Manutius.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868712673615,"sku":"L4478 1\/2","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2025-09-03-at-12.08.10.png?v=1781793392"},{"product_id":"sannazzaro-jacopo","title":"SANNAZZARO, Jacopo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFourth and  best  Aldine edition of the Latin works of the Neapolitan poet Jacopo Sannazaro (1458-1530), published posthumously by the Aldine Press and containing new material, in a beautiful French-style binding of the mid-sixteenth century and from the library of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, Scottish patriot, adventurer and politician. = This edition is the first to be dedicated entirely to Sannazaro and issued under the title  opera omnia,  gave the first appearance of many of his epigrams (only some of which had appeared in the previous edition), to which the divisional title refers:  nuper emissi.  Renouard described our edition as being better organised and more complete than previous Aldine editions of Sannazaro s Latin verse; the elegies have indeed been reorganised and the epigrams are properly set out with individual titles, unlike in earlier editions. \u003cbr\u003e\n  The first work included is Sannazaro s De partu Virginis, i.e. On the Virgin Birth, a retelling in three books of the Annunciation in classical epic style (Sannazaro borrowed heavily from Virgil), notable for its simile describing the Virgin Mary as being like a young girl by the sea who, seeing an approaching ship, fears that it might portend the arrival of pirates; some contemporaries were upset by the suggestion that the Virgin was excessively fearful at the time of the Annunciation. Also contained here are some of Sannazaro s eclogues, the pastoral Salices ( Willows ), some of his elegies and the newly published epigrams, as well as fragments and shorter poems.   \u003cbr\u003e\n The binding was most likely produced in France but is not dissimilar to the close imitations of French work made in English workshops c. 1560-70, such as the morocco bindings produced for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Archbishop Matthew Parker, as well as the work of the so-called Morocco Binder, to which our example bears the greatest similarity.  An English binding in morocco earlier than 1600 is extremely uncommon, but there was at least one London shop using this leather in the sixties and seventies of the sixteenth century   A study of the small tools used on these bindings makes it clear that they do not all come from the same shop  (Howard Nixon,  A Binding by the Morocco Binder  in The Book Collector, 6.3 (Autumn 1957), p. 278). Fletcher could have purchased this book in England or France, having spent time in both countries; he used his travels as an opportunity to buy books, particularly in France,  combining with the dealer James Fall to scour the back streets of Paris in the search for second-hand bargains  (ODNB).  \u003cbr\u003e\n Ren. 114: 3:  Cette  édition est mieux ordonn ée et plus compl√®te que les pr éc édentes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SANNAZZARO, Jacopo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868714180943,"sku":"L4793","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Sannazaro-L4793-1.jpg?v=1781793380"},{"product_id":"peto-luca","title":"PETO, Luca.","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this eclectic and entertaining antiquarian study of Roman and Greek weights and measures, including those still used in Rome at the time, first published in folio in the same year. The woodcuts show amphorae of various sizes, weights and rulers, and two reliefs depicting Roman farmers using amphorae and carrying weights on their wagons with oxen. Peto, who litters his account with literary references to Plautus, Crispian, Martial, Virgil, Tibullus, etc., notes that the ancient Greek system of measures originated with doctors and veterinarians (hippoiatricorum), which he relates to the Roman system used chiefly for liquids such as olive oil, hence the illustrations of amphorae. Peto dedicates a section on the differences between the Romano-Julian and the modern Gregorian calendars to a well-known medical doctor, Alexander Petronius.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Besides his medical interests   Peto was in fact chiefly a lawyer, as he is described in this book   there is a proudly Roman emphasis on Peto s work: one section relates extracts from Pliny and Virgil s Georgics to the  quality  of two years, 1569 and 1570, describing the weather and agricultural conditions in Rome; in 1569 there was an abundance of pigs of great fatness, as had not been seen in a decade. Peto describes the modern designations for olive oil, pettitus, medius, folietta and congitella, as well as the local Roman designations, the aridorum: rublus, rublitella, quarta, scortius, semiscortius, quartucius, etc. There is a section on the restoration of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct by Pope Pius IV, which appeared as a separate work in 1570, with reproductions of ancient inscriptions; the dedication is to his successor Pius V. Finally, there follow Quintus Rhemnus Fannius Palaemon s  songs  on weights and measures, first published in a compendium of medical works in 1528, who is quoted liberally throughout the text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PETO, Luca.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868715852111,"sku":"L4791","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Peto-L4791-1.jpg?v=1781793378"},{"product_id":"oribasius-3","title":"ORIBASIUS","description":" First Paris edition, appearing simultaneously with, and copied from, an undated edition published in Venice by Paulus Manutius, of the chief work of the Roman Greek physician Oribasius (b. 4\u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e century AD). \n Drawing almost entirely from Galen, Oribasius s eclectic work is a manual of ancient humoral medicine. It is predominantly dedicated to diet, with five of the seventeen books being given over to the humoral qualities of different foods and drinks and the effects of diet on the humours. The first book contains descriptions of the qualities (dry, hot, cold, etc.) and medicinal uses of various grains, seeds, fruits and nuts, while the second covers other plant matter such as tubers and bulbs, and the edible parts of animals and fish, honey, etc. Oribasius then addresses the general effects of diet, before turning to liquids: wine, healing waters   including those from certain Greek mountain springs   and various tinctures such as rosewater, chamomile, absinthe, etc., for which recipes are given. \n The sixth, seventh and eighth books are on purgation techniques and include discussions of circulatory anatomy, veins, arteries, etc.: therapeutic massage, cupping, bleeding through scarification (especially effective for women for whom other techniques do not work), and enemas and vomiting, for which there are more herbal recipes. In the ninth book Oribasius describes the importance of good air and a healthy climate and location, beneficial plants to have in your garden, etc., and in the same book gives a long list of recipes for poultices. The tenth book is on baths and hydrotherapy, including swimming in the sea, with descriptions of oils and unguents that can be used while bathing. Books eleven through fifteen are given over to alphabetical catalogues of simples and metals, drawn from Dioscorides and Galen, with their qualities and uses. The final two books (numbered confusingly in the running headers as fourteen and fifteen) return to anatomical descriptions of the body parts: the brain, heart, eyes and lungs, soft tissues, muscles, skeleton, etc. \n  On account of the commercial success of Aldine octavo editions in France, in 1554 the Aldine Press established a Parisian office run by Bernardo Torresano, the grandson of Aldus Manutius s partner and father-in-law, Andrea Torresano. Bernardo left Paris in 1571 due to financial difficulties. It was quite common for Bernardo to print simultaneously octavo editions with those issued in Venice by Paulus Manutius. \n Ren. 296: 2:  copi é sur l  édition in-8o, sans date.  Brunet, IV, 226, where he incorrectly states that the work had been printed the previous year by Oudin Petit (this was a different work by Oribasius, the Synopseos, also printed by Aldus in the same year). ","brand":"ORIBASIUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868719096143,"sku":"L4789","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4789-oribasius-1.jpg?v=1781793361"},{"product_id":"greek-psalter-ed-decadyus-justinus","title":"[GREEK PSALTER, ed. DECADYUS, Justinus.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good copy of the Aldine Greek Psalter, the third Greek Psalter to be printed, after Milan 1481 and Venice 1486. It appeared in Aldus s first catalogue of books, published 1 October 1498; the Greek type was the same used to print the Aldine Aristotle, and went out of use in the middle of that year. The editor of the text was a Greek native of Corfu. He addressed it  to the Greeks of Greece , implying it was designed for liturgical use in the Greek context. However, it must have been popular with Latins hoping to learn Greek through comparison with their own Latin psalters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere were two errors in the typesetting of the Psalterion.  Twice, at the beginning of a new gathering (_ and _), a section amounting to approximately one line of text was, inexplicably, dropped out. Leaves _1r and _1r thus contain the same twenty lines as any other regularly printed page, but a part of the text is clearly missing, and the preceding catchwords make the discrepancies patent  (Geri della Rocca de Candal,  Lost in Transition: A Significant Correction in Aldus Manutius s Psalterion (1496\/98)  in The Library, 23.2 (2022), p. 159). Since the catchwords indicate missing text, we can assume that the faults were not caused by the manuscript or printed text from which the compositors were working, so the error must have taken place during casting off or composition (p. 160).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOnly one of the errors, that on _1r, was identified by the printers. In some copies (those already printed) it was corrected by hand, while in some copies the sheets were recomposed. Della Rocca de Candal has identified two hands in which these corrections were made, identifying 'Hand A' as Manutius's own (pp. 164 and 165-166). Even during this process an error   two words omitted   was copied into the printed copies by hand until it must have been identified by the correctors, after which only Hand A carried out the now correct emendations. This copy contains the full correction in Hand A, which is  virtually certain  to be Aldus s own. It appears as number 30 in della Rocca de Candal s census of copies (p. 175).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRenouard observes that the honour of having projected the first plan of a Polyglot Bible is due to Aldus. At the beginning of the preface to the Aldine Psalter, mention is made of the probability of a Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Bible being speedily executed by Aldus. Of this projected work, however, only one sheet was printed  (Dibdin, Introduction, p. 1).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVolume rare, tr√®s bien imprim é  (Renouard).  Édition rare  (Brunet).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[GREEK PSALTER, ed. DECADYUS, Justinus.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868723487055,"sku":"L4529","price":69500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"scala-pace-1","title":"SCALA, Pace.","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome first edition of this work on expert or academic legal commentary (consilia) and judicial decisions by the little-known Paduan jurist Pace or Pax Scala (d. 1604), one of the few legal texts printed at the Aldine press. The book is set out as a series of quaestiones with responses by Scala, addressed to a fellow lawyer or patron called Bartolomeo Vitelli. The subject is the relationship of the written law to the legal opinions of jurists. The first book addresses the nature and status of consilia, as well as of jurists: can a Jewish convert, for example, become a jurist, since Jews could not? Scala is obviously interested in the relationship of Jewish citizens to the law courts, since he returns to it in the second book, which is an examination of different cases that might arise in the courts: Scala asks if Jews can bring suits against Christians, since Jews belong to a ‚Äòdifferent flock‚Äô. The third and fourth books discuss the relationship between learned consilia and judicial decisions, the most basic questions being whether, where, and when a judge should follow the letter of the law or the opinion given in a learned consilium. Situations discussed include when the judge disagrees with the consilia, when two different consilia disagree, and when the judge dies mid-case. There follows a brief work on how consilia relate to contracts and wills and testaments, and whether these should rely on consilia or the letter of the law in various situations, addressed to the Italian jurist Ottonelli Discaltio (1536-1607).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy bears the signature of Johann Fischard, signing himself as utriusque juris doctor, i.e. doctor of both civil and canon law. The date on our signature unfortunately rules out the famous German satirist Johann Fischart (c.1545-91), who was indeed a doctor of both laws; there is an example from 1580 of him signing himself as ‚Äòv.j.d.‚Äô (i.e. utriusque juris doctor), but in a slightly different hand and spelling his name Fischart. However, no one could be expected to have obtained their doctorate in both laws by the age of fifteen, which is roughly when students began their undergraduate degrees, and Fischart most likely did not gain his until the 1570s. Either the consensus on Fischart‚Äôs birth date is well off, therefore, or, more probably, this signature is that of another German doctor of both laws, born slightly earlier and with the very similar name of Fischard. A possible candidate is the Johann Fischard who was a pupil at the school in Frankfurt run by Jakob Mycillus, a former student of Melanchthon, and who contributed to a 1528 compendium of humanist Latin poetry and translations by Melanchthon‚Äôs circle (see Nathaniel Hess, ‚ÄòAngelo Poliziano and the Renaissance Invention of Greek-to-Latin Verse Translation‚Äô PhD thesis, University of Cambridge (2022), p. 101).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‚ÄòVolume devenu rare et peu d‚Äôusage‚Äô (Renouard).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SCALA, Pace.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868723847503,"sku":"L4852","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot-2024-02-28-at-13.29.15-1024x1024.png?v=1781283018","url":"https:\/\/www.sokol.co.uk\/collections\/aldines.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}