MANUTIUS, Paulus

MANUZIO, Paolo In Epistolas Ciceronis ad Atticum..

Venice, Paulus Manutius, 1553

£1,500.00

8vo. ff. [iv] 414. Italic letter. Anchor and dolphin device to title; very faint dampstain to outer margin a few quires, a particularly good, clean, wide-margined, wholly unsophisticated copy in contemporary limp polished vellum, lacking ties, yapp edges, ’65’ in contemp. hand to upper outer corner of upper cover.

Expanded 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.

“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.”

PMM 64, Opera 1534-7. BM STC It. P. 177. Ren 157:11. Adams M 459. Graesse IV 375. Brunet III 1383.

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