VALÈRE MAXIME. Lot n° 35

Valerius Maximus cum commento Oliverii Arzignanensis Vicentini. Venice, Bartolomeo Zani, March 22, 1497. In-folio, half tan sow skin with corners, smooth spine decorated with fleurons and cold fillets, lemon morocco title page, smooth edges (19th century binding). Remarkable Venetian incunabulum by the typographer Bartolomeo Zani, native of Portese on Lake Garda. The work of Valerius Maximus, Roman historian and moralist contemporary of Tiberius, is important because many of the historical episodes it recounts are known only through it. It is a source of documentation, sometimes unique, of the social, civil and religious life of the Romans, which was used for centuries in the teaching of rhetoric and the Latin language. The text of the nine books of Valerius Maximus is printed in Roman type in the center of the pages, surrounded by the historical and literary commentary of the Italian philologist Oliverio d'Arzignano, typed in smaller type. The work has been entirely rubricated and decorated with large initials painted in red and blue. From the library of Jean-Pierre d'Aigrefeuille (1665-1744), councillor and later first president of the Court of Auditors of Montpellier, with bookplate (mounted on the back cover). The copy also includes a bookplate with the initials DJ surrounded by the motto Semper audere (Normandy, 19th century) and that of Raymond Linard. A well-preserved copy despite some worm holes affecting especially the last few leaves; light marginal spotting on a few leaves; binding skillfully restored. The vintage of the edition has been retouched in pen on the colophon, changing the date from 1497 to 1487. ISTC iv00042000 - Goff V42 - H 15795* - BMC V 433 - GW M49194.