Lot n° 253
Estimation :
8000 - 12000
EUR
P. Cornelii Taciti - Libri quinque noviter inventi atque cum - Lot 253
P. Cornelii Taciti - Libri quinque noviter inventi atque cum reliquis ejus operibus editi. - Rome, Etienne Guillery, March 1515. In-folio, bound in full red morocco, boards decorated with a triple frame of gilt fillets, highly ornate ribbed spine with title and edition, all edges gilt, double fillet on the edges, interior roulette (rel. Duru, 1853) - [1 f. title], and 242 ff. signed A8, B-L6, M4, N2 O-PP6, QQ8, as indicated in the register (QQ8) and A10 for the supplement containing the "Vita Agricolae". Only ff. A2 to N1, containing the first 5 books of the Annales, are numbered (ff. 2 to 73).
F°. 2, r° : Philippus Beroaldus junior... Leoni X, pont. max., sal. - F° 3 v° Ph. Beroaldus ad lectorem, F° 4, r° : P. Cornelii Taciti ab excessu divi Augusti Historiarum liber primus. - F° 73, r°: P. Cor. Taciti liber quintus finit ad laudem... Dei et Leonis X., pont. max. - F° 73, v° : Phi. Beroaldus lectori. Hi sunt Cornelii Taciti quinque libri nuper in Germania inventi et auspiciis Leonis X... in lucem ad usum bonorum editi. - F° O, r° : Franciscus Puteolanus Jacobo Antiquario, ducali secretario, sal. - F° Oii, r°: P. Cornelii Taciti ab excessu divi Augusti Historiarum liber undecimus. - F° AA, v°: P. Cornelii Taciti ab excessu divi Augusti Historiarum liber XVII. - F° NN IIII, v°" : Cornelii Taciti Historiarum libri XXI imperfecti et reliquorum qui ad hanc diem reperiuntur finis. - F° NN V, r°: P. Cornelii Taciti... de Situ moribus et populis Germaniae libellus. - F° OO IIII, v°: Cornelii Taciti... Dialogus an sui saeculi oratores antiquioribus et quare concedant. - F° QQ VII, r°: Dilecto filio Magistro Philippo Beroaldo (Letter from Leo X to Philip Beroald the Younger) - F° QQ VIII, r°: P. Cornelii Taciti,... Historiarum libri quinque nuper in Germania inventi, ac cum reliquis omnibus ejus operibus que̡ prius inveniebantur, Rome̡ impressi per magistrum Stephanum Guillereti de Lothoringia... anno MDXV, kl. martii, Leonis X., pont. max., anno secundo. - F° QQ VIII v°: large arms of Leo X. - F° A, r°: Vita Agricolae. Julii Agricolae vita per Cornelium Tacitum ejus generum... composita. - F° A X, v°" : Finis [Printed text]
First edition of the first five (or six) books of Tacitus' Annals. Although there is no indication of this in the text, it seems that book six is in fact integrated into book five. Until the early 16th century, only books 11 to 21 of the Annals were known, but the manuscript of the first six books, thought to have been lost, was found by Jean Heitmers, a priest of the diocese of Liège and emissary of Leo X to the monastery of Corbie (or Corvey) on the Weser, in Germany. He extorted the manuscript from the monks and sent it to Leo X via Philippe Béroalde le jeune, president of the Roman Academy. As compensation, the Pope sent the monastery a sumptuously bound printed copy of the work. The original manuscript is now kept at the Laurentian Library in Florence. Completed on March 1, 1515, the book was the first produced by Étienne Guillery after the end of his partnership with Ercole Nani. A native of Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Étienne Guillery began working as a bookseller in Rome in 1506. Established in 1508 in the Parione district, he ran a printing house from 1509 until at least 1524. Father of the bookseller Marcantonio Guillery, active in Rome in 1558-1562, he worked in association with Ercole Nani, a printer originally from Bologna, from 1510 to 1514 (Hubert Elie, Lorrains et Lorraine, Nancy, 1969, pp. 24-26).
Precious copy printed on wide-margin paper: height 307 mm. Edition set, copy washed, trace of bookplate on first leaf. A superb volume, one of the very few of this edition to have come onto the market in recent decades.
This 1515 princeps edition narrates the long reign of Tiberius (14-37 AD). From the outset, Tiberius is presented as a pretender, and his story is that of a despot whose ambition, cruelty and mistrust are gradually revealed. Through shady maneuvers, he stripped the Senate and magistrates of all effective power; through increasingly repeated accusations of lèse-majesté, he decimated the nobility: aided by ministers without conscience (among them Séjan) dragged along by Tiberius' mad ambition and tortuous maneuvers, he finally stifled the impulses towards all moral superiority and freedom. Trials, scandals and crimes reached even the imperial family. Tacitus interrupts his description of these lamentable miseries for a moment to compare his arduous task as historian of the Empire with that of the chroniclers, who recounted the glorious undertakings and heroic struggles of the
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