Beschreibung:

PIUS II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Pope, 1405-1464). Historia Bohemica . Rome: Johannes Schurener, de Bopardia, and Johannes Nicolai Hanheymer, de Oppenheym, 10 January 1475. Royal half-sheet 4°. Collation: [1-6 10 7 6 8 8 ] (1/1 blank, 1/2r preface by Pius II addressed to Alfonso d'Aragona, 1/3v Historia Bohemica , 8/7v colophon, 8/8 blank). 73 (of 74, without final blank) leaves, the first blank leaf bound after quire 2. 33-34 lines. Type 1 . :101(leaded to 107)R 1 . 4- to 6-line initial spaces, some with guide-letters. (Small fore-edge or marginal paper flaws or tears repaired in several leaves, very light brown spots in fo.21, very few marginal annotations washed out.) H *255; BMC IV, 56 (IB. 17755); Oates 1409; Pellechet 177; Goff P-728; IGI 7792 [Bound with:] PIUS II. Dialogus de somnio quodam . Rome: Johannes Schurener, de Bopardia, 30 October 1475. Chancery 2°. Collation: [1 10 2-5 8 6-7 6 ] (1/1 blank, 1/2r Dialogus , 7/6r colophon, 7/6v blank). 54 leaves. 37 lines. Type 1 . :101R 1 . (Marginal annotations washed from fo.3, small marginal or fore-edge tears repaired in several leaves, small brown spot on fo.54.) HC (Add) *193; BMC IV, 57 (IB. 17762); Pellechet 131; Goff P-669; IGI 7831 [Bound with:] pseudo-Quintilian. Declamationes Tres ( Gladiator, Sepulchrum Incantatum, Gemini Languentes ). Edited by Domitius Calderinus (1446-1478). Rome: Johannes Schurener, de Bopardia, 30 October 1475. Chancery 2° (287 x 203mm). Collation: [1-2 8 3 10 ] (1/1r blank, 1/1v dedication by Calderini to Aniello Arcamone, 1/2r text, 3/9v colophon, 3/10 blank). 26 leaves. 35 lines. Type 1 . :101R 1 . 2- and 3-line initial spaces. (Tiny wormholes filled, small fore-edge repairs to leaves in quires 2 and 3.) HR 13662; CIBN Q-24; Goff Q-23; IGI 8253; Flodr, Quintilianus 20; not in BMC Green morocco over pasteboard, spine in compartments with gilt lettering, gilt fillets on turn-ins, yellow glazed endpapers, gilt edges (over red-stain in first work), [bound by Charles Lewis]. Provenance : Beriah Botfield, acquired from Payne & Foss for #8.8.0 (P. & F. Acquisitions, p.75) FIRST EDITIONS of these three works, all of which are rare. The Dialogus de somnio quodam , of which this is the only separate edition of the 15th century, and the Historia Bohemica are known in only three other copies each in Britain, and the Declamationes tres in only one other copy in Britain. The Walters Art Gallery and the Beinecke Library at Yale are the only locations in the U.S. for the Quintilian. The three declamations printed here are the eighth, ninth and tenth of the collection known as the major declamations, which are ascribed, along with the minor declamations, to Quintilian. This ascription may be based on Quintilian's statement in his Institutiones oratoriae that two of his books on rhetoric were already in circulation, and already in the fourth century Jerome referred to them as the work of Quintilian. It is probably due to this ascription that they owe their survival, but they are now considered the work of a group of professional teachers of rhetoric. They are the only full examples of declamations known as controversiae to survive Antiquity. The colophon of the Historia Bohemica seems to exist in several variations. Pellechet records the fullest version, ending with three lines of text ( Fauente Impressioni huius operis domino Iohanne Aloi/sio Tuscano aduocato consistoriali Memento mori. ) beneath which is a death's head. The British Library copy has only the last of these 3 lines ( Memento mori ) and the death's head, while the Botfield copy has neither the three lines nor the death's head. The Dialogus de somnio quodam is printed entirely on chancery paper in folio, including the innermost sheet of quire 7, which is a royal half-sheet in the British Library copy.