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Vitae illustrium virorum.

Accession number
PML 18741-42
Creator
Plutarch.
Object title

Vitae illustrium virorum.

Published

[Rome] : Vdalricus Gallus, [1470]

Description

[296, 304] leaves ; 41 cm (fol.)

Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909.
Notes
Title fro ISTC.
Imprint from ISTC. Printer's name from colophon, leaf [1]/2r (in verse): Anser Tarpeii custos Iouis: unde: q[uam] alis / Constreperes: Gallus decidit: ultor adest. / Vdalricus Gallus: ne quem poscantur in usum / Edocuit pennis nil opus esse tuis. / Imprimit ille die: quantum non scribitur anno. / Ingenio: haud noceas: omnia vincit homo:
Printed in Han's type 3:113R.
Collation, part I: [1²; 2¹⁰ 3⁸ 4-6¹⁰ 7-8⁸ 9⁶ 10-15¹⁰ 16⁸ 17¹⁰ 18¹² 19¹⁰ 20⁴; 21-23¹⁰ 24-27⁸ 28¹² 29-30¹⁰ 31¹² 32¹⁰ 33⁴]: 296 leaves, leaves [20]/4, [29]/10, and [33]/4 blank; part II: [34¹⁰ 35⁸ 36⁶ 37-38¹⁰ 39⁶ 40¹⁰ 41⁸ 42-44¹⁰ 45-46⁸ 47¹² 48-49⁸; 50¹⁰ 51-52⁸ 53¹⁰ 54⁸ 55¹⁰ 56⁸ 57-59¹⁰ 60-61¹² 62⁶ 63⁸ 64-65¹² 66⁸]: 304 leaves, leaves [49]/8, [54]/8, [58]/10, [62]/6, and [64]/12 blank. Variant collation in Bod-inc: quire [1⁴] with leaves [1]/1-2 blank.
Paper format: Royal folio.
The whole (sixty Vitae) was on sale at Milan by 27 Apr. 1470 (E. Motta, in Rivista storica italiana 1 (1884) p.255 n.2).
Edited by Johannes Antonius Campanus.
Includes lives of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, and Carolus Magnus by Donatus Acciaiolus; of Agesilaus by Xenophon (attributed to Plutarch); of Cicero by Leonardus Brunus Aretinus (attributed to Plutarch); of Evagoras by Isocrates; of T. Pomponius Atticus by Cornelius Nepos; of Plato by Guarinus Veronensis; of Aristoteles by Leonardus Brunus Aretinus; of Homer, ascribed to Herodotus; and of Virgil by Donatus.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 39.7 x 28 cm.
PML copy missing 3 leaves: [20]/4, [29]/10, [33]/4 (blanks). PML vol. II originally bound (according to signatures and foliation) out of standard order: ...Life of Ceasar (quires [45-46]), followed by Demosthenes and Cicero (quires [53-54]), Dion and Brutus (quires [50-52]), Phocion and Cato (quires [47-49]), then Demetrius (quire [55])... .
Binding
Both volumes: 20th-century quarter brown goatskin, with cloth sides, over paper boards (41 x 29.5 cm), sewn on 4 supports by C.M. Ullman, 1963. Plain paper pastedowns and endleaves; plain endbands.
Variant title
Checklist title: Vitae parallelae
Inscriptions/Markings
Vol. I (PML 18741): Hand deocration: rubrication unrealized. Annotations: contemporary marginal notations sporadically throughout, in an Italian hand (different from vol. II) and numeric quire signatures. Heavy black ink title "Plutarchi Vitae tomus primus" (leaf [1]/1r), "tomo primo" and "tomo secundo" division in register (leaf [1]/1v), and similar titles for a few lives.
Vol. II (PML 18742): Hand decoration: contemporary Italian gold initials with white vine decoration on red/blue/green ground, and headlines. Annotations: contemporary marginal notations throughout, at times rather extensive, in at least 2 Italian hands (different from vol. I), foliation (starting at 299), and numeric quire signatures.
Provenance
Vol. I (PML 18741): Unidentified red stamp, abraded: a star above 2 lines of text, surrounded by text, in a slightly oval shape, 32 x 30 mm (leaf [1]/1r); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased from Gottschalk, Feb. 1909.
Classification
Century
Department