1518 LIVY ANCIENT ROME HISTORY p.-incunable MAINZ* ERASMUS / RENAISSANCE BINDING

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1518 LIVY ANCIENT ROME HISTORY p.-incunable MAINZ* ERASMUS / RENAISSANCE BINDING:
$3088.00

[Early Printing - Post-Incunabula - Germany - Mainz] [History of Printing - Fust and Schoeffer] [Latin Classics] [History of Rome] [Renaissance Bookbindings - Germany]

Printed in Mainz by Johannes Schoeffer, November 1518 (Prefaces by Erasmus and Carbachius dated March 1519).
Text in Latin.
Edited by Nikolaus Fabri of Karbach (Carbachius) and Wolfgang Angst, and with prefaces by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Ulrich von Hutten. Most complete edition to date. FIRST EDITION THUS.

\"Sehr wichtige Ausgabe.\" (Schweiger)
\"This SCARCE AND VALUABLE WORK, printed by Schoeffer, Fust\'s grandson, fixes A NEW ERA IN THE EDITIONS OF LIVY.\" (Dibdin)

A MAGNIFICENT EXAMPLE OF THIS SPLENDID, RARE AND IMPORTANT EDITION, which was THE MOST COMPLETE EDITION OF LIVY AT THE TIME OF ITS PUBLICATION.
Livy\'s classic History of Rome covers the time from the stories of Aeneas, the earliest legendary period from before the city\'s founding in c. 753 BC, to Livy\'s own times in the reign of the emperor, Augustus.

This fine edition superintended by leading North-European humanist scholars and beautifully printed in massive folio, at the cradle of printing - Mainz - by Johannes Schoeffer, the son of Peter Schoeffer. It contains the first appearance in print of Livy\'s complete Book 40 and of (any part of) Book 33 (the manuscript of which is now lost, making this 1518 edition the most authentic original source).

Carbach discovered \"in the library of Mainz cathedral [...] a manuscript of Livy, Books 33-40, including two sections which had been missing so far. It served as the basis for an edition of Livy together with the epitome of Florus (Mainz: J. Schoeffer, 1518), which Carbach produced in collaboration with Wolfgang Angst, who was editor and corrector for the Schoeffer printing house. [...] Erasmus, who may have met him in the autumn of 1518 (Ep 881), wrote the preface to the Livy edition of 1518 (Ep 919), praising Carbach\'s scholarship.\" (Contemporaries of Erasmus, I, p.266)

\"The 33rd book, with the first seventeen chapters almost effaced, and the 40th from the 37th chapter, were first made known to the world in the present publication: they were taken \'e Cod. antiq. Langobardicis litteris (in membrana) scripto S.Martini illius urbis.\' [...] This MS, of the present existence of which we are ignorant, was carefully revised and collated by Carbachius with the printed editions, from which he found it vary in two thousand places.\" (Th. F. Dibdin, An Introduction to the Knowledge of Rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics (4th Ed.), II, p.164)

\"The editio princeps (Rome, 1469) contained only books 1-10, 21-32, 34-39, and part of 40; an edition published in Mainz in 1518 added the rest of book 40 and the second part of book 33 ... The first part of book 33 was not published until 1616.\" (Gian Biagio Conte, Latin Literature: A History, p.375)

The first Aldine edition of Livy (in five volumes, 1518-1533) was based on this 1518 Mainz edition.

The Imperial printing Privilege from the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, as well as the original preface by Erasmus in this edition are OF GREAT IMPORTANCE FOR THE HISTORY OF PRINTING. Both claim that Johann Fust (Johann Schoeffer\'s grandfather) is the true inventor of printing, and that Mainz has the honor of having the first printing press.\"On the 9th of December 1518 the emperor Maximilian accorded to Johann Schoeffer the privilege of printing Livy, saying that \'he has learnt an been advised on the faith of worthy testimonies that the ingenious invention of chalcography was effected by the printer\'s grandfather.\' Erasmus, in his preface to this book, says that great praise is due to the inventors of the almost divine art of printing, the chief among whom is rumoured or said to be John Faust, the grandfather of John Scheffer.\" (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Title-page and four other pages of this sumptuous folio are embellished with superb woodcut and metalcut borders and numerous fine large initials, including several huge (16-line) metalcut phytomorphic initials on crible (dotted) ground of a rather unusual grotesque - almost surrealistic - design. One of the borders features scenes from the Story of Lucretia (her rape and subsequent suicide); the other incorporates (in the bottom panel) the arms of Mainz and Brandenburg under a cardinal\'s hat, referring to the Dedicatee, Albrecht von Brandenburg (1490 - 1545), Elector and Archbishop of Mainz and Archbishop of Magdeburg.

Titus Livius (59 or 64 BC - 17 AD), known in English as Livy, the great historian of Republican Rome, wrote his celebrated history during the principate of Augustus. He was on familiar terms with the Julio-Claudian dynasty; Livy and Augustus\'s wife, Livia, were from the same clan, although not related by blood.

Livy was born in Patavium in northern Italy, now modern Padua. At the time of his birth, his home city of Patavium was the second wealthiest on the Italian peninsula. In his works, Livy often expressed his deep affection and pride for Patavium, and the city was well known for its conservative values in morality and politics. He was by nature a recluse, mild in temperament and averse to violence; the restorative peace of his time gave him the opportunity to turn all his imaginative passion to the legendary and historical past of the country he loved.

Livy’s teen years were during the 40s BC, a time that coincided with the civil wars that were occurring throughout the Roman world. It is likely that the Roman civil wars prevented Livy from pursuing a higher education in Rome or going on a Grand Tour of Greece, which was common for adolescent males of the nobility at the time. Later on, Asinius Pollio made a jibe at Livy\'s \"patavinity,\" saying that Livy\'s Latin showed certain \"provincialisms\" frowned on at Rome. Titus Livius probably went to Rome in the 30s BC, and it is likely that he spent a large amount of time in the city after this, although it may not have been his primary home. During his time in Rome, he was never a senator nor held any other governmental position. His elementary mistakes in military matters show that he was never a soldier. However, he was educated in philosophy and rhetoric. It seems that Livy had the financial resources and means to live an independent life. He devoted a large part of his life to his writings, which he was able to do because of his financial freedom.

Livy\'s only surviving work is the history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, which was his life\'s work from the age of about 32, until he left Rome for Padua in old age, probably after the death of Augustus in the reign of Tiberius. When he began this work he was already past his youth. Livy\'s History of Rome was in demand from the publication of the first packet. The popularity of the work continued through the entire Republic and early imperial period.

The book\'s title, Ab Urbe Condita (\"From the Founding of the City\"), expresses the scope and magnitude of Livy\'s undertaking. The work begins with the landing of Aeneas in Italy and other earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC, and closes with the death of Drusus, 9 BC, though it is likely that the author intended to continue it as far as the death of Augustus. Livius wrote in a mixture of annual chronology and narrative - often having to interrupt a story to announce the elections of new consuls as this was the way that the Romans kept track of the years. Livy claims that lack of historical data prior to the sacking of Rome in 386 BC by the Gauls made his task more difficult.

Of the 142 libri (i.e. \"books\" or chapters) comprising Livy\'s vast History only a small portion has come down to modern times; only 35 books are now extant (i-x, xxi-xlv), and of these xli and xliii are incomplete. The lost books seem to have disappeared between the 7th century and the revival of letters in the 15th - a fact sufficiently accounted for by the difficulty of transmitting so voluminous a work in times when printing was unknown, for the story that Pope Gregory I. burnt all the copies of Livy he could lay his hands on rests on no good evidence. Very much of the substance of the lost books has been preserved both by such writers as Plutarch and Dio Cassius, and by epitomizers like Florus and Eutropius. The division of Livy\'s History into decades is certainly not due to the author himself, and is first heard of at the end of the 5th century.

Livy\'s history reflects his admiration for the civilization of early Rome, and his belief that the importance of history was its applicability to contemporary life. As such he was a romantic, and not a scientific, historian. His sources included mainly the writings of previous authors, but he does not evaluate these sources critically. He chose what seemed to him most authentic and credible, and presented it with the enthusiasm of a patriot in the form of annals. His reputation and popularity are based on his elegant portraits of historical figures, his vivid depictions of events, his freedom of expression, and his masterly style inspired by Cicero. (see P. G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Method) The first and third decades of Livy\'s work are written in such an impeccable Latin style that Livy has become a sine qua non of curricula in Golden Age Latin.

Book 1 : The Earliest Legends of Rome
Book 2 : The Early Years of the Republic
Book 3 : The Decemvirate
Book 4 : The Growing Power of the Plebs
Book 5 : War with Veii, Destruction of Rome by the Gauls
Book 6 : Reconciliation of the Orders (389-366 B.C.)
Book 7 : Frontier Wars (366-341 B.C.)
Book 8 : First Samnite War, Settlement of Latium (341-321 B.C.)
Book 9 : Second Samnite War (321-304 B.C.)
Book 10 : Third Samnite War (303-293 B.C.)
Book 21 : From Saguntum to the Trebia
Book 22 : The Disaster of Cannae
Book 23 : Hannibal at Capua
Book 24 : The Revolution in Syracuse
Book 25 : The Fall of Syracuse
Book 26 : The Fate of Capua
Book 27 : Scipio in Spain
Book 28 : Final Conquest in Spain
Book 29 : Scipio in Africa
Book 30 : Close of the Hannibalic War
Book 31 : Rome and Macedon
Book 32 : The Second Macedonian War
Book 33 : The Second Macedonian War (continued).
Book 34 : Close of the Macedonian War
Book 35 : Antiochus in Greece
Book 36 : War Against Antiochus
Book 37 : Final Defeat of Antiochus
Book 38 : Arraignment of Scipio Africanus
Book 39 : The Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy
Book 40 : Perseus and Demetrius
Book 41 : Perseus and the States of Greece
Book 42 : The Third Macedonian War
Book 43 : The Third Macedonian War (continued)
Book 44 : Pydna and the Fall of Macedonia
Book 45 : Hegemony of Rome in the East

This edition also includes the Epitome of Roman History by Lucius Annaeus Florus (c. 74 AD - c. 130 AD), a Roman historian, born in Africa, who lived in the time of Trajan and Hadrian. His brief sketch of the history of Rome from the foundation of the city to the closing of the temple of Janus by Augustus (25 BC) was compiled chiefly from Livy.
The work is written in a bombastic and rhetorical style - a panegyric of the greatness of Rome, the life of which is divided into the periods of infancy, youth and manhood. It is often wrong in geographical and chronological details, but in spite of its faults, the book was much used as a handy epitome of Roman history, in the Middle Ages, and survived as a textbook into the nineteenth century. From certain similarities of style, the author has been identified as Publius Annius Florus, poet, rhetorician and friend of Hadrian.

Bibliographic references:

Adams L-1321; Brunet III, 1104; Graesse II, p.226; Schweiger II, 526-7; Proctor II, 9863; Roth, Mainzer Buchdruckerfamilie Schöffer, no. 47; Panzer VII, 411. 29; Proctor 9863.

Physical description:

Thick Folio; textblock measures 33 cm x 21 cm. Attractive contemporary (early 16th-century) German binding of blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards, with eight brass trimmings (on each corner of both boards), and remnants of the original clasps (now perished). Spine with prominent bands raised over four thick double cords; old paper label with manuscript title.

Pagination: [168], 730, [30] pp.
Signatures: å4 a6 b-c4 d-k6 aa-cc6 dd4 A6 B8 C-X6 Y4 a-x6 Aa-Bb6 Cc8 Dd-Tt6 Vv8.
Collated and COMPLETE.

Note: In addition to the complete preliminaries (80 leaves) of the \"2nd issue\" (Roth, Schöffer, no. 47), including the extensive Index, our example also contains (bound in front ab origine) the first quire å4 of the \"1st issue\" (which was printed without the index, Roth, Schöffer, no. 46), and, thus, contains the title-page, imperial printing privilege and the prefaces by Hutten and Erasmus in two variants with slightly different typesetting.

Leaves å1r, a1r and A1r within a superb historiated woodcut border with bottom panel depicting the Story of Lucretia; leaves å2r and a2r within an elaborate decorative border of portraits, flowerpots, grotesques, etc on criblé (dotted) ground with bottom panel incorporating the arms of Mainz and Brandenburg under a cardinal\'s hat.
About forty fine decorative and historiated initials, of which about thirty are very large 16-line metalcut initials of striking phytomorphic design on criblé ground.
Woodcut of the marbled inscription of Livy\'s epitaph (on A1v) found in Padua at the former site of the Temple of Juno where Livy had been buried.
One 10-line capital space (unrubricated) on A2r.

Preliminaries include title-page in 1st state (å1r); Imperial printing privilege from Maximilian I to J. Schoeffer in 1st state (å1v); dedication to Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg by Ulrich von Hutten in 1st atate (å2r,v); preface by Erasmus in 1st atate (å3r,v); Errata in 1st state (å3v-å4r); list of roman Consuls mentioned by Livy and Florus in 1st state (å4r,v); title-page in 2nd atate (a1r), Imperial printing privilege to J. Schoeffer in 2nd state (a1v); dedication to Albrecht von Brandenburg by Ulrich von Hutten in 2nd atate (a2r,v); preface by Erasmus in 2nd atate (a3r); Index copiosissimus (a3v-k5v); preface by Wolfgang Angst (k5v); Errata in 2nd state (k6r); list of roman Consuls in 2nd state (k6r,v); the Epitome by Florus (aa1r-dd4r, dd4v blank).
Divisional title to Livy on A1r, list of authors used by Livy and Livy\'s epitaph on A1v.

Colophon on Ss6r (verso blank); followed by the variorum readings compiled by Carbachius from the ancient manuscript at Mainz cathedral (Annotata ex vetusto codice...) on leaves Tt1r -Vv8r (Vv8v blank) with Carbachius\' preface on Tt1r.

Provenance:

An ownership/gift inscription in Latin on front pastedown, dated March 1545, and stating that the book was presented by Thomas Raselius to Jodocus de Amelunxen, canon of Speyer Cathedral.

Some marginal notes in neat 16th-century hand(s) to title and several other pages.

Early 20th-century rubber-stamp (on outer margin of title verso) of the library of Mount St. Alphonsus, former Redemptorist Seminary in Esopus, NY.

Condition:

Very Good antiquarian condition. Complete. Binding rubbed, worn on edges, clasps perished, but all eight brass corner-trimmings retained (slightly bumped). Title leaf (å4) with a couple of minor marginal tears (no loss), and reinforced at gutter (just touching the border). Some very neat 16th-century manuscript marginalia to title and several other pages. Early 20th-century rubber-stamp to outer margin of å4v (see Provenance above). Light to moderate dampstaining to top and outer margin of many leaves (almost entirely confined to margins, only occasionally extending to text but quite harmless). Occasional light marginal soiling, and short closed tears to margins of a few leaves (no loss). Several quires at the end with a few small wormholes, mostly marginal, but even when catching an occasional letter, legibility is not affected due to their minuscule size. Generally, a very attractive, wide-margined, bright and solid example of this splendid edition, well preserved in its original German Renaissance binding.

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