Cicero, Rhetoricorum d C. Herennium libri IIII, Venice, Aldus, 1514, contemporary Venetian morocco

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. In hoc voumine haec continentur. Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium lib. IIII. M. T. Ciceronis De inventione lib. II. De oratore ad Quintum fratrem lib. III. De claris oratoribus, qui dicitur Brutus lib. I. Orator ad Brutum lib. I. Topica ad Trebatium lib. I. Oratoriae partitiones lib. I. De optimo genere oratorum praefatio quaedam. Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, March 1514

First Aldine edition. "This volume of various rhetorical works by Cicero and ps.-Cicero provides enlightening and amusing insight into the daily life of Aldus Manutius. In the preface, Aldus complains to the poet Andrea Navagero (1483-1529) of the number of visitors who constantly disturb his work, to the point that he places a sign over the door to his office to thwart their interruptions…" (G. Scott Clemons & H. George Fletcher, Aldus Manutius: A legacy more lasting than bronze, 28).

4to (212 x 133 mm). Italic type, 39 lines. collation: *⁶ a-k⁸ l⁴ m-z⁸ A-H⁸ I⁴: 254 leaves. (Dampstaining, heavier at beginning and end, first and last gatherings with fore-margins a bit chipped and frayed, title with remnants of paper label.)

binding: Contemporary Venetian blind-stamped brown morocco (215 x 147 mm), attributed to the Third Barbarigo Master (ca. 1515-1520), covers with arabesque and knotwork stamps within a leafy border, stubs from four pairs of ties, plain edges. (Spine slightly dry and cracked and with small restorations at ends.)

provenance: Joseph Campenia, inscription on flyleaf dated 1696 — Adriana Raphael Salem (1903-1976), small circular A.R.S. book-label (her library put on deposit at Harvard in 1940s). acquisition: Purchased from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 1969. references: UCLA 120; Edit16 12196; Renouard 65/1