PLUTARCH.

The most influential Latin edition printed outside Italy Vitae Plutarchi Cheronei post Pyladen Brixianum longe diligentius repositae: cum moiore verioreque indice: necnon cum Aemilii Probi vitis.

      Paris, Jodocus (Josse) Badius Ascensius & Joannes Parvus (Jean Petit), 1514, November 13, preface dated 1 December 1514. - Jodocus (Josse) Badius Ascensius & Joannes Parvus (Jean Petit), Folio. Half blind stamped 16th-century pigskin over the original wooden boards, with two clasps, spine in compartments with title written in ink: 'Plutarchus 35', title also in 16th-century hand on the wood of the front board. Title in splendid Renaissance woodcut border, with coat of arms left blank in the lower borderpiece (Renouard, Encadrement no. 1); in the middle the printer's device of Jodocus Badius Ascensus with the heading 'prelum Ascensianum' printed in red (Renouard, marque 3, ill. vol. 1, p. 43), lettering of the title, as well as certain elements in the border printed in red. Many beautiful woodcut initials in the text. (22), 393, (1 blank) lvs. Very rare first Latin edition of Plutarch's Vitae paralellae (Lives) by the famous Parisian printer and publisher Josse Badius Ascensius. After the Strassbourg edition of 1470-71 this is the first and by far the most influential Latin edition outside Italy, printed three years before the Greek edition princeps. Much better, as is stated on the title, than the edition by Pylades Brixianus (=Johannes Franciscus Buccardus, † 1506), printed in Brescia in 1499.Plutarch's popularity and importance rest primarily on these 'Parallel Lives' - composed ca. 100-120 AD -, which were designed to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. The lives are presented in pairs, for example: Theseus-Romulus, Demosthenes-Cicero, Alexander the Great-Caesar, etc. There are 22 pairs, and four single biographies of Aratus, Artaxerxes, and the Roman emperors Otho and Galba. By exhibiting noble deeds and characters, they were also to provide patterns of good behavior and moral and ethical values. Plutarch's later influence has been profound, but his reputation faded in the Latin West during the Middle Ages, only to be re-introduced in Renaissance Italy by Byzantine scholars in the 15th century. Italian humanists had already translated Plutarch's work into Latin before 1509 when the Greek editio princeps of the Moralia, the other great work by Plutarch, was published by Aldus Manutius at Venice. The Greek editio princeps of the Vitae appeared at Florence in 1517 and they were printed in 1519 by Aldus. Especially through its translations into Latin - of which this 1514 edition by Badius is undoubtedly the most important - as well as in the vernacular - the famous French translation by Jacques Amyot in 1559, and the English by Sir Thomas North in 1579 - the Lives could gain an enormous impact on Western civilisation by providing later biographers and literary authors an outstanding model. It is very well known for example that authors like Montagne, Corneille, Racine, Rousseau and Schiller heavily drew upon the Lives. This was certainly also the case with Shakespeare for whom the Lives were the main source for his Roman history plays. Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Anthony and Cleopatra and Timon of Athens, all come, often literally, from the Lives. They have functioned also to a great extent as a model for later rulers like the French king Henry IV, Frederik II of Prussia and even Napoleon. The book is printed in a fine Roman type. Very good copy, with ownerships's entry of Albertus Trechsel (?) in ink on verso front cover, and the bookplate of Ludovicus Romanus IVD on verso of first flyleaf.- (Some contemporary 16th century scholarly annotations, esp. on lvs. 120-126v: the 'Live of Cato'). Renouard, Josse Badius Ascensius, III, p. 175-8 (4 copies, one of which in the Bibl. Arsenal); NUC lists 3 copies, one of which in the Folger Shakespeare Library); not in STC French, and Adams; no copy in the British Library; no copy in BNF. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]