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Diogenes Laertius; Translation : Ambrosius Traversarius, Ed: Benedictus Brognolus COMPLETE INCUNABULA: Diogenes Laertius. De vita & moribus philosophorum (Vitae et Sententiae philosophorum)
Venice Bonetus Locatellus for Octavianus Scotus 1490 Hard Cover Good No Jacket 4to - over 9¾
Diogenes Laertius. De vita & moribus philosophorum (Vitae et Sententiae philosophorum). Translation : Ambrosius Traversarius, Ed: Benedictus Brognolus. Venice: Bonetus Locatellus for Octavianus Scotus, 18 Dec. 1490. 4to in vellum, complete text and title page and colophon with all printing information. This is an important and scholarly Latin incunable edition, dating back to 1490 -- as translated by the prominent theologian Traversarius and edited by humanist scholar Brognoli -- of the very influential works of the Roman-era biographer Diogenes Laertius. It is the complete edition of his exceedingly important (and often quite lively and amusing) "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers", the most important early source (and in many cases the only source) on the most important philosophers of the early West. It is also very handsomely printed -- by the important Venetian printing house of Octavianus Scotus and decorated with numerous large and lovely woodcut initials in an intricate entwined format, typical of the high style of early Venetian printing. A rare and handsome collectible of early printing, complete with original title page and colophon -- and a very important work of Western thought and philosophy, dating back to 1490, before Columbus reached America. The incunable is bound in what appears to be an early 17th century vellum with a spine label. It is a 4to measuring 6.5" x 8.75". Vellum is smooth, some bumping at corners, front edge shows a bit of wear, vellum just starting to split a bit at top and bottom spine joints. There are no preliminaries or blanks at the front. The title page is the first page and it is present but has been decorated or strengthened with a border of old marbled paper. Locatelli’s printing is very nice, a crisp roman typeface with floriated woodcut initials, including a number of very pretty large initials. It is 42 lines and headline per page. It is unpaginated but 112 leaves or 224 pages, complete, signatures A8-08. Colophon: impressum suit Venetii simpensis nobilis viri Octaviani Scoti civis Modoetie(n)sis MCCCCLXXXX decimoquinto Kalendas Ianuarias. Registrum...O[mn]es sunt quaterni. ISTC id00222000, Goff D222, HC 6202, Kleb 338.4, OCLC 20468572. The condition of this incunable is pleasingly good. There are numerous contemporary notes, marginalia, pointing hands, etc. throughout but especially in the front, on some pages in two colors – brown and a pale red, very attractively done. A green silk page marker is still present. Paper is strong with occasional light foxing and a few scattered small dark stains at the gutter. There is some worming in the "l" quire at the bottom gutter not affecting text. The colophon page has some small holes in the margin along with more wear. Back of the colophon has a few notes made by the old hand, along with a 1950 ownership signature. Last blank has some modern pencil notations. Otherwise very nice. Little is known of the Roman-era author Diogenes Laertius. He probably wrote this rich compendium on the lives and doctrines of philosophers sometime in the third century. This, his masterwork, ranges back to the earliest days of Western philosophy, covering over three centuries, from Thales through Plato to Epicurus (to whom the whole tenth book of Diogenes is devoted). It is a fount of information: Diogenes Laertius carefully compiled his information from hundreds of sources and enriches his accounts with numerous quotations. "The chief service of Diogenes Laertius (fl. 220) in his Lives was the preservation of the 'Sovran Maxims' of Epicurus, the collection of the forty most important articles in the Epicurean doctrine. Other biographies of scientific (including chemical) interest are those of Aristotle, Democritus, Leucippus, and Theophrastus. Diogenes's famous Lives of the philosophers was among the favorite schoolbooks of the ealier Renaissance, and there were numerous editions of it, especially in Italy where is remained in favor until the beginning of the seventeenth century. The text contains many biographical facts and quotations not easily accessible elsewhere. ... A rare incunable" (Neville Historical Chemical Library, I, 368). The publisher of this incunable was Octavianus Scotus (d. 1498) who hired Bonetus Locatellus to do the actual printing. Ottaviano Scotto began work as a printer himself in Venice in the 1470s. While he was known for printing a wide variety of subjects, from theology to law to medicine, his specialty was philosophy and classical texts in Latin translation aimed squarely at the academic market. One of the editors Scotto employed regularly was Benedetto Brugnoli (1427-1502) who was a teacher at the Scuola di San Marco and who was one of a group of humanists well known for their scholarly editing of classical texts. This worked well for the canny Scotto – his editions were known for their careful scholarship and they also sold well to the academic circles he patronized. Scotto made several contributions to the history of printing. He was the first printer to use quarto and octavo formatting for liturgical books, to make them smaller and more practical for his customers in the clergy and he employed moveable type to print red and black musical staves for his missale. In 1484 Scotto decided to become a publisher rather than a printer. Although Scotto would use many printers over the years, his most important was Boneto Locatelli, a friar from Bergamo. Locatelli printed over 120 incunabula for Scotto, including this edition of Diogenes Laertius’s Lives. The translation of the text from the original Greek into Latin was done by Ambrogio Traversari (Ambrose the Camaldulian) (1386-1439), an Italian theologian. He worked on the translation of the Lives from 1424 to 1433 – and his translation would become the first printed Latin edition ever published, in 1472 in Rome, followed 18 years later by this edition. (The Greek text would not be printed until the next century.)
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4950.00 USD
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Justiniano, Lorenzo INCUNABLE WITH PLATES Doctrina del Beato Lorenzao patriarcha della vita monastica.
Venice Bernardinus Benalius/Lazarus de Soardis 1494 1st Soft Cover Good No Jacket 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall
Doctrina del Beato Lorenzao patriarcha della vita monastica. Justiniano, Lorenzo. (Dottrina della vita monastica). [Venice: Bernardinus Benalius/Lazarus de Soardis] 20 October 1494. With 3 full page woodcut engraved plates (the last in facsimile), including the portrait of Justiniano attributed to Bellini. Initials. In quarto (5.25" x 8"), 114 unnumbered leaves, Gothic type, 35 lines, 4- and 8- line black and outline woodcut lombard initials. Contents: a1r woodcut beneath 1-line letterpress title, a1v-2r table, a2v woodcut, a3r-09v text, 09v colophon Anno MCCCC.lxxxxiiij....laquale impressione fo compiuta a .xx. De Octobrio del anno supra notato...olOr blank, olOv woodcut beneath 1-line letterpress title. Condition is good. The book is bound in old vellum paper with a handwritten title to the spine, blue label with handwritten information (in Italian) on the front. Front end papers have worming, old notes in Italian. Title plate/original cover has some old repairs affecting the plate in two places, one small worm hole and staining. The second plate (the portrait of the Saint) has a few small worm holes in the plate as well as some old inking. The last plate/original back cover is printed on vellum paper and has some darkening. -- it is a facsimile done on old but not contemporary paper that has been married to the book with old sewing. Text has some worming occasionally affecting text, one small repair affecting text, some occasional small stains and humidity staining but in general quite clean and sturdy. Binding is solid. Goff J-500, Hain 9477, Essling 757, BMC V 378. This is a very scarce and important incunable, "one of the most remarkable Italian woodcut books of the 15th century." The book contains three woodcut plates (one facsimile) two of which are used as ornamental covers, "one of the few Italian incunabula to be issued by the printers with decorative wrappers." The first shows John the Baptist and Saint Peter upholding a scroll enclosing the holy name. The back "cover" engraving, printed on vellum paper, which is the facsimile, shows Saint Francis and another figure (sometimes described as Mary Magdalene, sometimes as Saint John) upholding the name of Mary, mother of God. The third woodcut is the most remarkable. It is "definitely known to be based on" a portrait of Justiniano by Gentile Bellini. The portrait shows the tall, austere figure of the Patriarch walking, preceded by a small acolyte bearing a cross and advancing toward a church door, which renders in reverse Bellini's picture of 1465 that now hangs in the Academy, Venice. The modifications, deleting the halo and simplifying the background, may have been provided by Bellini himself in a new design for the woodcutter (Hind). "This is one of the few instances in which we are enabled to trace the relation between a woodcut of the period under consideration and an undoubtedly contemporaneous painting." The book is a collection of devotional tracts attributed to Saint Lawrence Justinian (Lorenzo Giustiniani), Bishop and first Patriarch of Venice who was born in 1381 and died 1456. The identity of the printer is now presumed to be Bernardinus Benalius. However, at one time Paul Fridenperger was credited with the book, based on another book printed by him in 1495 with a similar font and a woodcut that resembled the 3rd woodcut in this book. "The stronger evidence is that the font seems to be Benali's and he was granted in February 1494 a privilege for what must be the present edition of Justiniano. Lazarus de Soardis was granted a similar privilege for Justiniano the same day, so we may see in him the publisher, in Benali the printer of this edition...." This copy includes the one-line letterpress title above the first woodcut, as noted in Hain 9477 and Esslin 757. Printer Bernardino Benalio was born in Bergamo c1458 and died in Venice in 1543. He settled in Venice c. 1480 and in 1483 was running a bookshop at the sign of St Jerome in the Merceria. He published (alone or with other publishers) over 100 texts of classical and contemporary authors, treatises on law and medicine, as well as several books of a religious nature, mostly in Latin. He was noted for his illustrated editions, including those of Dante Alighieri (1491) and Ovid (1493-4), as well as this beautiful edition of the Patriarch with its three full page woodcuts
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5500.00 USD
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