PLUTARCHUS.

Plutarch in the unsurpassed 1478 Jenson edition. Illuminated copy of Petrus De Ginori in a fine contemporary Italian binding, Vitae parallelae.

      Nicolas Jenson, 1478, 2 January., Venice, - 2 vols. in one. Folio. Beautiful contemporary blind tooled brown calf over wooden boards; fillets, rolls and loose stamps; an octangular space in the center with two ornaments composed of four demi-circles of six lines, surrounded by a pattern of very tiny stamps; spine in six compartments tooled in a lozenge-shaped pattern; brass corner- and centerpieces; four clasps and catches: two at the fore edge and one at the top and lower edge. First text-page lavishly illuminated: the 12-lines initial (Q) in gold decorated with a exquisite freely painted spray of coloured flowers in blue, red, pink and yellow, green leaves and tiny gold rayed discs in a North Italian (Florentine?) style, extending in the left and top margins; a similar spray in the right margin surrounds a monogram 'PB' and a coat of arms: a blue field with a gold bar with three gold stars, in a green wreath in the lower margin.Very wide margins (405 x 20mm.); printed in the famous Jenson roman (Type 115 (111)R); capital spaces with guide letters. Collation: Vol. 1 : a(10), b(12), c-m(10), n(8), o-x(10), y-z(8), &(8) (= 234 leaves, including the first blank and the often lacking blank f. b7); one extra blank leaf; vol. 2: A-E(10), F-N(alt. 8/10), oo-pp(8), Q-Y(10), Z(8), &&(10) (= 226 leaves). Parchment double-leaves are bound in at the beginning and the end of the book-bloc, one of the leaves pasted to the boards. Splendid and in many respects best and most important edition of the Lives by Plutarch, published by the famous printer, publisher and type-designer Nicolas Jenson. It is the third edition of this work, only preceded by the edtio princeps, edited by Johannes Antonius Campanus, printed in 1470-71 at Rome by Ulrich Hahn, and the Strassbourg edition by the R-printer (=Adolph Rusch), after 1471 (the edition by Sweynheym and Pannartz, Rome 1473 - Hain 13126 - is a bibliographical ghost).It is a pity that we know so little of the genesis of what instantly became a much prized and widely read edition, recommended as much by its popular subject matter as by its exceptional typography, offering content and presentation in perfect harmony. The edition is based on the edition by Campanus, but a great deal of further editorial work had been needed, as Jenson acknowledged in a colophon, stating that the Lives had been 'emended with anxious care'. The Latin translations are by Johannes Tortellinus, Lapus Biragus, Donatus Acciaiuolus, Antonius Pacinus, Guarinus Veronensis, Leonardus Brunus, Franciscus Barbarus, Leonardus Justinianus, Alamannus Rinuccinus and Jacobus Angelus de Scarperia. Added were the Vitae 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 Vita of Homer; the translation by Guarinus Veronensis of the Vita of Euagoras by Isocrates; the translation by Baptista Guarinus of the Vita of Agesilaos by Xenophon, and the Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani by Festus. Jenson substituted a version of the Lives of Theseus and Romulus by Lapo da Castiglionchio for the one by Filelfo which Campanus had used, deleted the non-Plutarchus Lives of Homer and Virgil from the end of the selection, and re-issued the remainder of the collection. Subsequent editions of the Vitae followed his. Such a procedure of changing and adding material in such a way as to give his version of the text a look of its own and to offer the reader something extra for his money, is typical for Jenson during the seventies of the century.Nicolas Jenson († 1480) was undoubtedly the greatest of the first generation of Venetian printers. Born ca. 1440 near Tours he may have been sent to Mainz in 1458 by King Charles VII to learn the secrets of the new trade of printing, introduced there by Gutenberg. He left Mainz probably in 1462. Until 1470 when he emerged as a first-rate printer in Venice, [Attributes: Soft Cover]