MANUTIUS, Paulus.

by Paulus Manutius

£1,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

Valuable first edition of Paulus Manutius s learned and celebrated commentary on the 16 books of Cicero s letters to his closest friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. The youngest son of Aldus, Paulus (1512-1574) was a very influential publisher and one of the most prominent humanists of the Late Italian Renaissance. A master of the epistolary genre with very successful collections both in Latin and vernacular, he was especially engaged in Latin literature, and a passionate Ciceronian. His outstanding reputation as a scholar was built upon his editions and commentaries on the works of Cicero: no man had a juster conception of the beauties of this great Roman orator and philosopher, and no man has more successfully imitated his style (Dibdin). The greatest orator of the Late Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer and scholar. Although he was a homo novus , namely the first in his family to achieve public office, he soon became one of the leading political figures of the era of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Marc Antony and Octavian. Perhaps the most valuable of Cicero s surviving works are the letters, such a vivid commentary on the last years of the Roman Republic as we have of no other period of ancient times. Here alone, devoid of formality, the character of Cicero and his contemporaries can be seen; and a picture appears of life two thousand years ago ( ) all the domestic detail which is elsewhere lacking ( ) historical facts that would otherwise have b

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.