Skip to content
Have questions? Bruce McKittrick Rare Books is online now!
Virtual Book Fair Exclusive

Le premier liure de La Premier Decade...des histoires depuis la ville fondée, traduit de Latin en Francois

Livy. c. 59 B.C.E.-17 C.E

$20,700
  • Binding: CONTEMPORARY FRENCH TAN CALF FOR MARCUS FUGGER (front hinge cracked and partly restored, rear panel slightly stained), outer and
  • Publisher: G. Corrozet
  • Location: Paris
  • Date: 1548
  • Seller SKU: 12303
Paris: G. Corrozet, 1548. CONTEMPORARY FRENCH TAN CALF FOR MARCUS FUGGER (front hinge cracked and partly restored, rear panel slightly stained), outer and inner triple-rule frames, gilt corner fleurons, in the center of both panels is the gilt stamp of a hand with a branch on which sits a bird, spine gilt with a daisy in each compartment, Fugger's librarian's manuscript-lettered vellum spine label, brown edges.

With: Xenophon. c. 430-355/4 B.C.E.
La Cyropedie...Traduite de Græce en langue Françoyse par Iaques de Vintemille. Paris, [É. Groulleau for himself, J. Longis and] V. Sertenas 1547. 4to (223 x 160 mm.). [iix], 172 leaves. A fine series of elegant seven-line woodcut initials with thistle designs, Sertenas' earliest woodcut device on the title.

Ad I-II: MARCUS FUGGER'S COPY OF TWO ANCIENT WORKS ON STATECRAFT AND POLITICS put into French by two translators of Machiavelli.
Both are in good condition (light browning, old adhesion causing loss of a few sorts to the last leaf of Xenophon and Livy's title); ownership inscription of Marcus Fugger (1529-1597), stamp and library marks of his descendant, Count Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein (1594-1670); from the library of Jean Bourdel.
¶Karl & Faber, Bibliophile Kostbarkeiten a. d. Bibliothek d. Augsburger Patriziers Marcus Fugger (1933) 383 (this copy).
Ad I: First Edition of Jacques Gohory's translation. Livy's From the Founding of the City treats the legendary establishment and development of Rome: the arrival of Aeneas, the reigns of the seven kings and the beginning of the Republic. Gohory undertook the translation at the behest of Anne de Montmorency while simultaneously translating Machiavelli's Discourses on the First Decade of Livy for his patron. Some of the woodcuts, including the Death of Lucretia, were cut for this edition. Two copies in American libraries.
¶Brun, Le Livre illustré en France au XVIe siècle 314; Bouchereaux, "Recherches bibliographiques sur Gilles Corrozet" in Bulletin du Bibliophile (1955) 275,51; Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie. Lateinische Schriftsteller I: 548 (l'Angelier issue); BP16 113235.
Ad II: First Edition of Jacques de Vintimille's translation - the first into French. Xenophon's Cyropedia tells the life of Persian King Cyrus the Great (c. 600-530 B.C.E.) and served as a manual for just rule. Vintimille translated it at the behest of François 1er, while also translating The Prince into French for Montmorency.
¶Marsh, "Xenophon" in Catalogus translationum VII: 84; Bunker, A Bibliographical Study of the Greek Works and Translations Published in France During the Renaissance: The Decade 1540-1550 221; Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesammten Litteratur der Griechen III: 602; Mortimer, French 556 (Groulleau issue); BP16 112971.

Offered by Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

Bruce McKittrick Rare Books
Since 1979 we have specialized in pre-1830 European book and manuscripts, with an emphasis on early printing, illustration, copy specific characteristics, bindings, and condition.
Contact the Seller
Bruce McKittrick
43 Sabine Ave.
Narberth, Pennsylvania 19072
Phone/Text: (610) 660-0132

All books are sent on approval and may be returned for any reason within ten days.

We ask that customers not known to us supply trade references or remit pro forma. We accept checks and wire transfers as well as Visa and MasterCard. All books offered are subject to prior sale.

Postage and insurance are gratis. For domestic orders we use UPS. International orders are shipped by USPS Registered Air Mail or Federal Express, unless otherwise instructed.


tracking-