[Appianus]

[APPIANI ALEXANDRINI ROMANARUM HISTORIARUM] [APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA]. Historia romana. [And:] De bellis civilibus. [Translated from Greek into Latin by Petrus Candidas Decembrius]

      Venice: Bernard Maler (Pictor), Erhard Ratdolt and Peter L!slein, 1477. 2 volumes. First complete edition of the surviving portions of AppianOs History of Rome (As a matter of note, Part II only, De bellis civilibus, was printed by Vindelinus de Spira in 1472) Roman letter. Thirty-two lines, printed marginalia. Four-sided woodcut white vine border on the recto of a2 of Part I printed in red, three-sided woodcut white vine border on the recto of a2 of Part II printed in black, both possibly by Bernhard Maler. Nine- and five-line white-on-black woodcut initials. Headlines consisting of book numbers or titles supplied erratically. Large quarto volumes (10 15/16 x 8 inches; 278 x 204 mm.) , early twentieth-century English niger morocco. Covers panelled in gilt, gilt-lettered spines with raised bands, turn-ins ruled in gilt, all edges gilt. [132] and [212] leaves. Complete with both initial blanks. A superb copy of this typographical masterpiece. Volume I with two wormholes to lower blank margin of last few leaves and light dampstaining to last two leaves (o9-o10). Volume II with short repaired tear to lower corner of initial blank leaf and small stain to leaves h8-h10. Occasional minor dampstaining to extreme lower margins, scattered light marginal foxing, mainly in Volume II. Ink presentation inscription from Joachim Erckstede to Dr. Valentin de Teteleben (dated November 1522) on verso of final leaf in Volume I and on recto of initial blank leaf in Volume II. A few contemporary ink marginalia in Book II of De bellis civilibus. Bookplate of William Harrison Woodward.. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION. A SUPERB COPY OF THIS TYPOGRAPHICAL MASTERPIECE. The third book from RatdoltOs press at Venice. The translatorOs division of the extant books into two parts differs slightly in its order from the Greek originals. He dedicated the first part to Pope Nicholas V and the second part to Alfonso, King of Aragon and the Two Sicilies. Book III (Parthicus) in Part I of this and the following editions is a Byzantine compilation. The lower part of c1 verso (eleven lines) and all of c2 recto in Part I were left blank by the printers to indicate a gap in Appian1s manuscript, with a printed marginal note to that effect. These volumes represent the earliest example of the use of a fully-developed woodcut border in a Venetian book. RatdoltOs first border, a three-sided, simple black-on-white title designed for the Calendarium of 1476, is composed of fairly conventional plants growing out of vases. The borders for the Historia romana and De bellis civilibus, by contrast, are scrolling white vines and acanthus leaves, full and lush, black-on-white (in some copies, red-on-white), with a medallion for the owner1s arms in the lower edge. RatdoltOs initial letters, which replaced the illuminated or rubricated initials, are also of the utmost importance in the history of book-decoration (see Hind, A History of Woodcut, II, pp. 459-462). THIS COPY IS ONE OF A FEW IN WHICH THE FIRST WOODCUT BORDER IS PRINTED IN RED. In most copies both borders were printed in black. The partnership of the printers Erhard Ratdolt and Bernhard Maler and the corrector and editor Peter L!slein lasted from 1476 to 1478. The exceptional beauty of the books printed at their press is characterized by the use of a series of very fine woodcut borders and initials along with a strikingly clear and pleasing roman type. Although traditionally credited to Ratdolt, the design of the woodblocks and possibly of the type is more likely to have been the work of Bernhard Maler, the painter, who was in charge of the press. When Ratdolt set up his own press in 1480, he apparently brought only one of the border blocks with him, the one that appears in Part II of the present work, which he used again for the 1482 Euclid. The border used in Part I appears in this edition only. "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 excellency of its typography" (Redgrave).