PLUTARCH JENSON, Nicolaus

Vitae parallelae illustrium virorum Translated from Greek into Latin by Lapus Florentinus, Leonardus Aretinus, Guarinus Veronensis, Leonardus Justinianus and others.

      Venice Nicolaus Jenson 1478 - A Beautifully Illuminated Jenson Plutarch PLUTARCH. Vitae illustrium virorum. [Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 2 January 1478]. Fourth edition, the first printed by Jenson, of Plutarch?s Parallel Greek and Roman Lives (preceded by the edition printed in Rome by Ulrich Han in 1470-1471, the Strassburg edition printed by the "R-Printer" (Adolph Rusch) after 1471, and the edition printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1473). Two large folio volumes (Volume I: 16 1/16 x 9 7/8 inches; 409 x 252 mm. and Volume II: 15 15/16 x 10 3/8 inches; 404 x 264 mm.). [233] (of 234) and [226] (of 228) leaves. Bound without blank leaf a1 but with blank leaf b7 in Volume I. Bound without two initial (unsigned) blank leaves in Volume II. Roman letter. Fifty lines. Capital spaces with guide letters. Volume I with opening twelve-line white-vine initial illuminated in gold, red, blue, and green, with marginal extensions, by a contemporary artist. Volume II with twenty-nine fine illuminated white-vine initials in gold, red, blue, and green, by a different artist, including two with very high quality portrait profiles of Lucius Lucullus on A6 recto (on a green background) and Nicias on B10 recto (on a red background). Eighteenth-century Italian calf. Covers decoratively bordered in gilt, spines ruled in gilt in compartments with red morocco gilt lettering labels, board edges decoratively tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers, mottled edges. Small bit of expert restoration to fore-edge of front board of Volume I. Some light insect damage to edges of front board of Volume II (and less so to lower rear board), slight crack to front joint of same. Volume I with small tear in the lower margin of m7, neatly repaired tear to lower inner margin of e5, some very occasional light staining to lower blank margin of a few leaves, manuscript notes erased, mostly marginal but some interlinear. Tiny marginal repair to upper margin of first leaf in Volume II, minor wormholes to the first five leaves (occasionally affecting a few letters), marginalia washed out. Scattered foxing and staining to both volumes. Although these two volumes led separate lives before their joining in the eighteenth-century, they are well matched, similar in size and with similar illumination and leaf edges. From the library of Gordon R. Block Jr., sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet in January 1974 (lot 167). Purchased by Abel E. Berland (with his bookplate) from Seven Gables Bookshop in February, 1974. An outstanding, extensively rubricated, textually complete copy of this extremely scarce edition. Only three complete copies have sold at auction in the last twenty-five years. Along with his Pliny printed in 1472, Plutarch?s Vitae illustrium virorum is one of Jenson?s finest productions. The edition is based on the edition by Campanus, but as Jenson acknowledged in a colophon, it was "emended with anxious care." The Latin translations are largely the work of fifteenth-century humanists, including Johannes Tortellinus, Lapus Biragus, Donatus Acciaiuolus, Antonius Pacinus, Guarinus Veronensis, Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, Franciscus Barbarus, Leonardus Justinianus, Alamannus Rinuccinus, and Jacobus Angelus de Scarperia. They were commissioned by the Florentine stationer Vespasiano da Bisticci in the 1450s and 1460s. Added were the Lives of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, and Charlemagne by Donatus Acciaiuolus; of Titus Pomponius Atticus by Cornelius Nepos; of Cicero and Aristotle by Leonardus Brunus; and of Plato by Guarinus Veronensis; the translation by Perigrinus Attius of the pseudo Plutarch Life of Homer; the translation by Guarinus Veronensis of the Life of Euagoras by Isocrates; the translation by Baptista Guarinus of the Life of Agesilaos by Xenopho [Attributes: Hard Cover]