SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, Caius (75-160). Vitae XII Caesarum . - AUSONIUS. Versus . [Venice: Printer of the 1480 Valla], 1480. Super-chancery 2° (300 x 205mm). Collation: a 1 0 b-g 8 h 6 i 8 k 6 l 8 m-p 6 (a1 blank, a2r Ausonius verses, Suetonius text, p6v date, register). 108 (of 110) leaves, with b7,8 cancelled (see note below). 38 lines. Type: 112R, 112Greek, guide-letters. FINE CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ILLUMINATION: 12 initials in gold opening each book with white-vine decoration on red, green and blue background with white dots, the decoration to the first initial extending to a border on 3 sides, armorial in lower border, other 2-3-line initials and paragraph marks alternating in red and blue. (Small wormhole in final quires touching some letters.) 18th-century vellum over paper boards, leather spine labels (very slight tear in rear cover and stain on front), in modern cloth box. Provenance : armorial in lower margin of opening page (slightly rubbed); closely corrected in a contemporary hand; annotations and headlines in an early 16th-century Italian hand. Having been one of Petrarch's favorite books, and read by Boccaccio, Suetonius' Lives became a necessary addition to a learned man's library during the Renaissance. Its continued popularity is reflected in the many editions printed in the 15th century (the present edition is already the sixth). Due to an error in typesetting, leaves b7 and b8 are often found cancelled, as in the present copy; they contained largely misplaced text which was correctly printed on leaves 24, 25 and 27r. HC *15119; BMC VII, 1137 (IB. 21286a-b); Goff S-820; IGI 9232.
SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, Caius (75-160). Vitae XII Caesarum . - AUSONIUS. Versus . [Venice: Printer of the 1480 Valla], 1480. Super-chancery 2° (300 x 205mm). Collation: a 1 0 b-g 8 h 6 i 8 k 6 l 8 m-p 6 (a1 blank, a2r Ausonius verses, Suetonius text, p6v date, register). 108 (of 110) leaves, with b7,8 cancelled (see note below). 38 lines. Type: 112R, 112Greek, guide-letters. FINE CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ILLUMINATION: 12 initials in gold opening each book with white-vine decoration on red, green and blue background with white dots, the decoration to the first initial extending to a border on 3 sides, armorial in lower border, other 2-3-line initials and paragraph marks alternating in red and blue. (Small wormhole in final quires touching some letters.) 18th-century vellum over paper boards, leather spine labels (very slight tear in rear cover and stain on front), in modern cloth box. Provenance : armorial in lower margin of opening page (slightly rubbed); closely corrected in a contemporary hand; annotations and headlines in an early 16th-century Italian hand. Having been one of Petrarch's favorite books, and read by Boccaccio, Suetonius' Lives became a necessary addition to a learned man's library during the Renaissance. Its continued popularity is reflected in the many editions printed in the 15th century (the present edition is already the sixth). Due to an error in typesetting, leaves b7 and b8 are often found cancelled, as in the present copy; they contained largely misplaced text which was correctly printed on leaves 24, 25 and 27r. HC *15119; BMC VII, 1137 (IB. 21286a-b); Goff S-820; IGI 9232.
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