Appianus, of Alexandria

Historia Romana

      Venice: Bernhard Maler (Pictor), Erhard Ratdolt, and Peter L!slein, 1477. Quarto, 10.2 x 7.8 inches. Editio princeps. a-i10, k-n8, o10. 132 of 132 leaves, including the first blank, a1. Volume one only of two. This is a clean copy, with very large margins throughout. The first and last printed leaves have marginal paper restorations. This copy is bound in a beautifully executed unsigned early twentieth or late nineteenth-century binding. The crushed tan morocco is elaborately tooled in blind and gilt with interlocking knotwork patterns reminiscent of Islamic decoration. . In 1477 we have the magnificent edition of Appian's Roman History in two volumes quarto, [...] printed with the beautiful types used for the 'Kalendarium.' They are plentifully enriched with initial letters, sometimes printed in red ink, and they have all of them the gracefully designed title-borders for which the books of Ratdolt are so deservedly famous. [...] To my mind there are few printed books of any age which can be compared with the Appian of 1477, with its splendid black ink, its vellum-like paper, and the finished excellence of its typography. I remember the surprise expressed by an eminent bookseller at the price obtained in a London sale-room within the last seven years for a copy of the work in fine condition (I think the price was nine guineas), and his remark at the time, that this was three or four times the trade value of the book in question. It only served to show how entirely book prices are a matter of fashion, and how much booklovers fall into certain distinct grooves in the valuation of the best productions of the past." (Quoted from Erhard Ratdolt and His Work at Venice, by Gilbert Redgrave.)