Livius, Historiae Romanae decades [Italian], Venice, 1493, modern half calf

Titus Livius

Historiae Romanae decades [Italian]. Venice: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis, for Lucantonio Giunta, 11 February 1493

Median folio (328 x 216mm.), 347 leaves (of 382), [*⁸ **¹⁰] a-o⁸ p¹⁰ aa-oo⁸ pp¹⁰ A-P⁸, double column, 63 lines plus headline, roman type, woodcut initials, first leaf of each decade with a woodcut illustration within an architectural woodcut border, numerous other woodcut illustrations, modern half leather over speckled paper boards, retaining old lettering-piece on spine, lacking first 18 leaves (the table) and N8-P8 (Bruni's history of the Punic War), first three leaves repaired with some loss, some occasional staining

This edition contains the first, third and fourth decades of Livy's history of Rome. While defective, the text of Livy and the illustrations for it are complete. Some of the woodcuts previously appeared in the Malermi bible of 1490, also printed for Lucantonio Giunta, and they subsequently appeared in other Livy editions (Latin and Italian) printed in the 1490s and early sixteenth century, mostly for the Giunta press (see also lot 144 for the 1520 edition).

LITERATURE:

ISTC il00255000; Sander 3997

PROVENANCE:

Caietanus de Neronis (Gaetano Neroni), 19 January 1736, inscription at head of aa8; Libreria Zumbo, Florence, purchased in 1972