In M. Tvllii Ciceronis orationes Paulli Manutij commentarius ...

Accession number: 
PML 199271
Author: 
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, author.
Published: 
Venetiis : Apud Aldum, MDLXXIIX [1578]
Credit: 
Purchased on the T. Kimball Brooker Foundation Book Purchase Fund in honor of the Morgan's Centennial.
Description: 
[8], 319, [73] pages : portraits ; 37 cm
Notes: 

Includes the text of the orations.
The Ciceronian texts are printed in Italic type in two columns, with Paolo Manuzio's commentary in Roman type in long lines, arranged so that text and commentary are always on the same or adjacent pages.
The first of a three volume edition; the second & third volumes were published in 1579.
Signatures: *⁴ A-3C⁴.
200 leaves. Woodcut medallion portrait of Aldus the Elder on title-page, engraved portrait of Paolo Manutio on verso of title (plate mark meas. 210 x 150 mm) with engraved caption reading "Paullus Manutius Aldi F", woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces.
Copy includes the rectangular engraving of the Paulus Mantius portrait, with his coat of arms at right, as opposed to the smaller, oval portrait found in some copies.
Includes 72 page index on leaves 2S-3C⁴.
Library's copy is a large paper impression, likely a presentation copy to Giacomo Boncompagni, the Duke of Sora, and the illegitimate son of Pope Gregory XIII, from Aldo Manuzio the Younger. The binding exhibits the Boncompagni arms with the same "papal" augmentation as the six examples known to Paul Needham (cf. Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings: 400-1600, no. 77).

Binding: 
Possibly Venetian red morocco (361 x 253 mm), ca. 1578, frame formed by two gilt fillets, flanked by multiple blind fillets, gilt winged dragons at angles, interlaced lozenge and rectangle formed by two gilt and multiple blind fillets, arms of Duke of Sora in center surrounded by border frame and interstices of leafy azured tools, stirrups, winged angel heads, arabesques, and winged dragons, traces of four pairs of fabric ties, spine with raised bands in five compartments, second with gilt-lettered title, others with winged dragons, edges gilt and gauffered to a vine leaf, grape, and tendril pattern, with the leaves and grapes colored white. Housed in gray cloth dropback box.
Variant Title: 

In M. Tullii Ciceronis Orationes Paulli Manutii commentarius

Provenance: 
Likely Aldo II Manuzio, presentation copy to Giacomo Boncompagni, duca di Sora (1548-1612), armorial supralibros, the Boncompagni wyvern in compartments of spine; Richard Gregory (1761-1839), ex libris to front pastedown; purchase inscription (Rome, 7 May 1821) on first page of text; Isabella Augusta Persse (1852-1932), Lady Gregory; her sale, Sotheby's London, 20-21 March 1972, lot 11; Maggs Bros., London; purchased in previous Sotheby's London, 17 October 1978, lot 106; Alan G. Thomas, London, purchased in previous sale; Robert Hesketh, ex libris to front pastedown. acquisition: Purchased from Bernard Quaritch, London, 1997; T. Kimball Brooker (b. 1939), his sale: Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library. The Aldine Collection D-M, Sotheby's, New York, 18 October 2024, lot 957.
Classification: 
Department: