Beschreibung:

SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE AUGUSTAE -- In hoc codice continentur Caius Suetonius Tranquillus De. XII. Caesaribus. Aelius Spartianus. Iulius Capitolinus. Aelius Lampridius. Trevellius Pollio. Flavius Vopiscus. Eutropius. et Paulus Diaconus. De regum ac imperatorum Romanorum vita . Edited by Bonus Accursius (fl. 2nd half 15th century). Milan: Philippus de Lavagnia, 20th July - 22nd December 1475. 2 parts in 1 volume, median 2° (325 x 230 mm). Collation: A 1 0 B-I 8 (A1 blank, A2 r editor's dedicatory letter to Cicchus Simoneta, A2 v Ausonius's verse on Suetonius, A3 v Calderinus's life of Suetonius and an extract from bk. 7 of Sicco Polentonus's De illustribus scriptoribus , A5 v title, A6 r Suetonius's De vita XII Caesarum bks. 1-5); K-M 8 N-O 6 (bks. 6-12, O5 r colophon: Mediolani Impressum per Magistrum Philippum de lavagnia .1475. die 20. Iulii , O5 v and O6 blank); A 6 B-R 8 S 1 0 (A1 blank, A2 r De exordio Nervae et bonis eius moribus ac morte , A2 v De exordio imperii Traiani , A5 v blank, A6 r table of contents from Spartianus to Vopiscus and including Vulcatius Gallicanus: In hoc codice continentur vitae diversorum principum et tyrannorum a divo Hadriano usque ad Numerianum a diversis scriptoribus compositae , B1 r Spartianus's De vita Hadriani , S8 v Vopiscus's De carino , S10 blank); A-D 8 (Eutropius's Romanae Historiae libri X ); E 8 F 1 0 (Paulus Diaconus's Romanae Historiae libri VI , F8 v colophon: Informatum est hoc Opus per Magistrum Philippum de Lavagna anno a Nativitate Christi. M. cccc. Lxxv. Undecimo kalendas Ianuarias Mediolani , F9-10 blank). 303 leaves (of 304; final blank removed). Roman type 3:108. 40 lines, initial-spaces with guide-letters, signatures stamped in extreme lower outer corners (some cropped). Initial supplied by a contemporary rubricator alternately in red and blue. (Carefully washed at the time of rebinding, blue initials faded.) Fine mid-19th-century English gold-tooled red morocco, wide dentelle border on sides, small tools in compartments of spine, roll-tooled borders on turn-ins, gilt edges. Provenance : Beriah Botfield (binding). EDITIO PRINCEPS OF ALL THESE CLASSICAL TEXTS ON ROMAN HISTORY, except for Suetonius's Lives of the Emperors, which had three times previously been published in Rome (Flodr 290.1, 290.2, 290.4) and once in Venice (Flodr 290.3). This is one of Lavagnia's finest productions and the Botfield copy is EXTREMELY LARGE AND FRESH. Most of the signatures are still visible and the condition of this copy allows a correction to Scholderer's collation of the Grenville and George III's copies. No copy has apparently been offered at auction in almost two decades. HC * 14561; Pr 5845; BMC VI, 702 (IB. 26112); Flodr 272.1.