Details
March 1514
CICERO. Opera rhetorica. Ed. Andrea Navagero (1483-1527, librarian of the Marciana). 4° (212 x 130mm). Collation: *6 (1r title In hoc volumine haec continentur [etc.], device no. 5 and papal privilege, 1v blank, 2r-6v Aldus's dedicatory letter to Navagero); a-k8 l4 (the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium, f2r De inventione); m-x8 (De oratore); y-z A-B8 (Brutus); C-E8 (Orator); F-H8 I4 (Topica, G1v Oratoriae partitiones, H7r De optimo genere oratorum, I1r register, colophon and Aldus's note to the reader on the confusion between De oratore and Orator, I2r-3v errata, I4v device 5). 254 leaves. Italic type 1:180. 39 lines and headline. Initial-spaces with guide-letters. (Small light stain in last quire.)
PREFACE: In a long and extraordinary dedication to his best Latin editor, Aldus vividly describes the exhaustion and frustration from which he suffered towards the end of his life. All men who write new words or edit the classics need peace and quiet, such as Navagero pursues among the laurel and olive groves of Lake Garda. But Aldus's work is continually interrupted by two things in particular (apart from six hundred others). First, the frequent letters from every part of the world, which would take him day and night to answer. Secondly, the endless stream of visitors, who come to see what new book is in hand or, more usually, who have nothing better to do. "Come," they say, "let's drop in on Aldus." Not to speak of those who come to recite a poem, rough and unpolished, which they want him to print. He has begun to defend himself from such tedium. He only replies to important letters, and even those in few words. Visitors are now warned by a sign above the door to his study: "Whoever you are, Aldus asks you again and again: if there is anything you want from him, please state your business quickly and get on your way, unless you are going to take his work on your shoulders, as Hercules did for weary Atlas. There will always be something for you, or for anyone else who comes along, to do."
BINDING: contemporary Paduan gold-tooled black morocco, multiple-fillet border, scroll ornament at the corners (shared with De Marinis II, 1684 and the binding of lot 67), another in the centre, spine tooled in blind, blue edges, (joints cracked, spine and two corners restored). Apart from an old shelf-mark and date 1825, no other evidence of provenance.
FIRST ALDINE EDITION. Earlier editions from the Press of works by Cicero, Epistolae familiares (1502, 1512) and Epistolae ad Atticum (1513), were octavos. The Rhetorica inaugurates a new Aldine quarto format, relatively tall and slender, followed in the same year by Libri de re rustica (R 66:2) and Quintilian (see lot 65). Between stints in public life, Navagero, a young poet from the Paduan circle, made significant scholarly contributions to the Aldine Latin programme (see lots 65-66, as well as the 1515 Lucretius and 1517 Terence). Isaac 12835; Adams C-1676; Dionisotti & Orlandi LXXXII; Murphy 102; Sansoviniana 142; Laurenziana 122; R 65:1
CICERO. Opera rhetorica. Ed. Andrea Navagero (1483-1527, librarian of the Marciana). 4° (212 x 130mm). Collation: *6 (1r title In hoc volumine haec continentur [etc.], device no. 5 and papal privilege, 1v blank, 2r-6v Aldus's dedicatory letter to Navagero); a-k8 l4 (the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium, f2r De inventione); m-x8 (De oratore); y-z A-B8 (Brutus); C-E8 (Orator); F-H8 I4 (Topica, G1v Oratoriae partitiones, H7r De optimo genere oratorum, I1r register, colophon and Aldus's note to the reader on the confusion between De oratore and Orator, I2r-3v errata, I4v device 5). 254 leaves. Italic type 1:180. 39 lines and headline. Initial-spaces with guide-letters. (Small light stain in last quire.)
PREFACE: In a long and extraordinary dedication to his best Latin editor, Aldus vividly describes the exhaustion and frustration from which he suffered towards the end of his life. All men who write new words or edit the classics need peace and quiet, such as Navagero pursues among the laurel and olive groves of Lake Garda. But Aldus's work is continually interrupted by two things in particular (apart from six hundred others). First, the frequent letters from every part of the world, which would take him day and night to answer. Secondly, the endless stream of visitors, who come to see what new book is in hand or, more usually, who have nothing better to do. "Come," they say, "let's drop in on Aldus." Not to speak of those who come to recite a poem, rough and unpolished, which they want him to print. He has begun to defend himself from such tedium. He only replies to important letters, and even those in few words. Visitors are now warned by a sign above the door to his study: "Whoever you are, Aldus asks you again and again: if there is anything you want from him, please state your business quickly and get on your way, unless you are going to take his work on your shoulders, as Hercules did for weary Atlas. There will always be something for you, or for anyone else who comes along, to do."
BINDING: contemporary Paduan gold-tooled black morocco, multiple-fillet border, scroll ornament at the corners (shared with De Marinis II, 1684 and the binding of lot 67), another in the centre, spine tooled in blind, blue edges, (joints cracked, spine and two corners restored). Apart from an old shelf-mark and date 1825, no other evidence of provenance.
FIRST ALDINE EDITION. Earlier editions from the Press of works by Cicero, Epistolae familiares (1502, 1512) and Epistolae ad Atticum (1513), were octavos. The Rhetorica inaugurates a new Aldine quarto format, relatively tall and slender, followed in the same year by Libri de re rustica (R 66:2) and Quintilian (see lot 65). Between stints in public life, Navagero, a young poet from the Paduan circle, made significant scholarly contributions to the Aldine Latin programme (see lots 65-66, as well as the 1515 Lucretius and 1517 Terence). Isaac 12835; Adams C-1676; Dionisotti & Orlandi LXXXII; Murphy 102; Sansoviniana 142; Laurenziana 122; R 65:1