CICERO
COUNTERFEIT ALDINE
Le pistole.
In Vinegia, ‘Aldus’, [c. 1555].£1,450.00
8vo. ll. 399 (i). Italic letter, Aldine device to t-p. Contemp. limp vellum, slightly soiled, contemp. ms. title to spine. Contemp. ms. underlining and marginal marks and contemp. autograph to ffep of ‘Anibal Lioni,’ page ref. in different hand below, page refs in third hand to verso of final blank. Light waterstaining to head of gutter of first few quires affecting text, and foxing at upper corner and edges throughout, not affecting text, tidemark to two ll. of LL. Very light foxing to first and last ll., occasional light worming to margins, a good copy.
Undated and doubtless pirated edition, without imprint or colophon but bearing the anchor and dolphin device, of this Italian translation of Cicero’s Letters to Atticus; a near-identical edition, but with different types, was issued by Paulus Manutius in the same year. Cicero’s letters to his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus were a crucial source for the Renaissance recovery of ‘proper’ Latin style, as well as offering a window into the orator’s personality; in these letters he revealed himself more fully than with any other correspondent save perhaps his brother. Cicero’s De Amicitia, on friendship, was also dedicated to Atticus. The Letters to Atticus mark a crucial point in Roman history, which included the rise and death of Julius Caesar and the downfall of the Republic, and are a valuable source of information on Roman social history and mores. Their rediscovery by Petrarch in the Cathedral Library of Verona in 1345 has been described as the spark for the humanist revival of classicism in Italy.
‘Cette édition sans date est certainement d’une autre Imprimèrie … Ce ne sont point les mèmes caractères; et ce volume, mal executé, est la contrefaçon de l’édition Aldine de 1555 qu’il copie servilement’ (Ren. 265: 31).
USTC 822369. Adams C 1997. EDIT 16 CNCE 12326. BM STC It., p. 179. Not in Brunet.