Cicero, De officiis, Venice, 1482, contemporary morocco, Landi-Ascherson-Abbey copy

Marcus Tullius Cicero

De officiis [commentary by Petrus Marsus]. Laelius, sive de amicitia [commentary by Omnibonus Leonicenus]; Cato maior, sive de senectute [commentary by Martinus Phileticus]; Paradoxa Stoicorum [with a partial commentary]. Venice: Baptista de Tortis, 26 September 1482

Chancery folio (308 x 210mm.), 210 leaves, a-r⁸ s-t⁶ A-C⁶ D⁴ AA-DD⁶ EE⁴ aa-bb6, 60-61 lines of commentary, roman type, initials on a2r-v, A1r, AA1v and aa1 in gold on a blue and pink floral background with small marginal extensions, a4 with similar initial with extensive marginal extensions and the coloured arms of the Landi family within a laurel wreath at the foot of the page, other initials supplied in blue, a few neat early annotations, contemporary Florentine blind-tooled morocco over wooden boards, two clasps with intricate leaf-shaped catchplates, in modern drop-backed folding box, vellum endleaves, a few small wormholes in text, binding slightly rubbed, corners and ends of spine repaired, hinges repaired, upper pastedown replaced, textblock split before quire aa

A lovely copy with fine contemporary illumination and binding. According to the 1967 Quaritch description, both the illumination and the binding are Florentine.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ic00598000

PROVENANCE:

"No. 22", early inventory number at foot of first leaf; Landi family, of Florence, arms at foot of a4; Charles Stephen Ascherson (died 1945), bookplate with pencil note "Q Feb. 1917" [his library apparently purchased by Quaritch]; John Roland Abbey, bookplate and note at end, "J.A. 2702, 18.12.1945", sale, Sotheby's, 21 June 1965, lot 195, £380, to; Quaritch, catalogue 867 (1967), no.65, £600