‎CICERO. ‎
‎Commentationes diversorum partim antea, partim nunc primum editae in Epist. M.T. Ciceronis, quae olim Familiares dictae, nunc rectius Ad Familiares appellantur. ‎

‎N.pl. (Geneva), Excudebat Henr. Stephanus, 1577. ‎

Reference : 120056

‎8vo. 2 parts in 1: VIII,231,(1 blank);205,(1 blank) p. Vellum 16.5 cm (Ref: GLN-6033; Renouard, Estienne, 144; Schreiber, Estiennes, no. 15; Dibdin 1,423) (Details: The vellum that the binder used comes from a once sumptuously calligraphed manuscript leaf with Psalm 118 vss 17/21 written in six lines: 'Retribue servo tuo vivifica me et custodiam sermones tuos./ Revela oculos meos et considerabo mirabilia de lege tua./ Incola ego sum de (sic!) terra, non abscondas a me mandata tua./ Concupivit anima mea desiderare iustificationes tuas in omni tempore./ Increpasti superbos maledicti qui declinant a mandatis tuis'. The letter is the gothic 'textura', used for liturgical texts in the 14th & 15th century, and the example for the first typeface. The margins are ample. The first R is a huge capital; several smaller capitals have traces of gilt; the text is partly faded by wear, but readable. Printer's Olive tree device of the Stephanus family on the title page, motto: 'Noli altum sapere', short for 'Noli altum sapere, sed time', in English 'Donot be high-minded, but fear'. (Epistola Beati Pauli ad Romanos 11,20) (Condition: Vellum worn & soiled. Front hinge cracking. Ownership entry on the title page. On the title also in old ink: 'Liber non adeo frequens'. Small name cut out of the title, leaving a tiny hole of 2 mm x 23 mm. Printer's mark on the title skillfully handcoloured. Some old ink underlinings and annotations in the text. No flyleaves) (Note: For centuries the Roman orator, author and politician Cicero retained a central position as a school author and a model for good writing, on protestant schools and in Jesuit colleges. The period of his greatest glory was the Renaissance, when he became the object of a literary cult called Ciceronianism. Many humanists took him as an absolute model for pure Latin, and an elegant style. Petrarch modeled his own 'Epistolae Familiares' in part on Cicero's 'Epistulae ad Familiares'. Petrarch created, like Cicero, in his letters 'a kind of autobiography and a partial history of his own life and time.' Petrarca 'helped establish Cicero as a uniquely powerful stylistic model and intellectual resource'. (The Classical tradition, N.Y., 2010, p. 196) . This 1577 book on offer contains a choice of the commentaries on the 'Epistulae ad Familiares' of diverse leading scholars. It is, Stephanus tells in the preface, an accompanying volume to the edition of the 'Epistulae ad Familiares', which he published in the same year. This supplementary volume contains the commentary (scholia) on the letters by Paulus Manutius, 'locorum aliquot explicationes & emendationes' of Willem Canter, the 'emendationum rationes' of Dionysius Lambinus, an excerpt of the 'adversaria' of Adrianus Turnebus, a 'commentariolus' of Stephanus himself. The second part, 205 pages, contains the according to Stephanus very useful 'commentarius' of the Italian bishop Gerolamo Ragazzoni, or Hieronymus Ragazzonius, 1537-1592. (Part 1, p.5)) (Provenance: 'Sum Jan. Herman(ni) Demmingeri, Nor(nb)'. This might be the cleric Johann Hermann Demminger, from 1597 till 1605 'Pfarrer' at Feucht, a walk of 3 hours from Nurnberg. He moved to Nurnberg, for from 1505-1623 he was curate and deacon of the local 'Spital-Kirche') (Collation: a4; a-b8, c4, d-p8 (leaf h8 blank, p8 verso blank); a-f8, g4, h-n8, o4 (min blank leaf o4) (Photographs on request) ‎