P. Cornelii Taciti .— Five Books Recently Discovered and Pub - Lot 413

P. Cornelii Taciti .— Five Books Recently Discovered and Published Along with His Other Works. — Rome, Etienne Guillery, March 1515. Folio, bound in full red morocco, with covers decorated with a triple frame of gilt fillets, a highly ornamented ribbed spine bearing the title and edition, all edges gilt, double fillet on the edges, interior roulette (bound by Duru, 1853) - [1 title folio], and 242 folios signed A8, B–L6, M4, N2, O–PP6, QQ8, as indicated in the register (QQ8), and A10 for the supplement containing the “Vita Agricolae.” Only folios A2 through N1, containing the first five books of the Annals, are paginated (folios 2 through 73). F. 2, verso: Philippus Beroaldus junior... Leoni X, pont. max., sal. - F° 3 v° Ph. Beroaldus to the reader, F° 4, r°: The first book of the Histories by P. Cornelius Tacitus, from the death of the divine Augustus. - F° 73, r°: The fifth book by P. Cor. Tacitus ends in praise of... Dei and Leo X, pont. max. - F° 73, v°: Phi. Beroaldus to the reader. These are the five books of Cornelius Tacitus, recently discovered in Germany and, under the auspices of Leo X... published for the benefit of the learned. - F° O, r°: Franciscus Puteolanus to Jacobo Antiquario, ducal secretary, may he rest in peace. - F° Oii, r°: Book XI of the Histories by Cornelius Tacitus, following the death of the divine Augustus. - F° AA, v°: Book XVII of the Histories by Cornelius Tacitus, beginning with the death of the divine Augustus. - F° NN IIII, v°: The twenty-first book of the Histories by Cornelius Tacitus, incomplete, and the conclusion of the remaining books found to date. - F° NN V, r°: P. Cornelius Tacitus... A Short Treatise on the Geography, Customs, and Peoples of Germany. - F° OO IIIIII, v°: Cornelius Tacitus... A Dialogue on Whether the Orators of His Own Age Are Superior to Those of Antiquity and Why. - F° QQ VII, r°: To my beloved son, Master Philip Beroaldo (Letter from Leo X to Philip Beroaldo the Younger) - F° QQ VIII, r°: P. Cornelius Tacitus,... Five Books of Histories recently discovered in Germany, and together with all his other works that had previously been discovered, printed in Rome by Master Stephen Guillereti of Lorraine... in the year 1515, on the 11th of March, during the pontificate of Leo X, max., in his second year. - F° QQ VIII v°: large coat of arms of Leo X - F° A, r°: Vita Agricolae. The Life of Julius Agricola, composed by Cornelius Tacitus, his son-in-law... - F° A X, v°": Finis [Printed text] First edition of the first five (or six) books of Tacitus’s Annals. Although nothing in the text suggests it, it appears that Book Six has been incorporated into Book Five. While only Books 11 through 21 of the Annals were known until the early 16th century, the manuscript of the first six books—which were believed to be lost—was rediscovered by Jean Heitmers, a priest of the Diocese of Liège and an emissary of Leo X to the monastery of Corbie (or Corvey) on the Weser River in Germany. Heitmers extorted the manuscript from the monks and sent it to Leo X via Philippe Béroalde the Younger, president of the Roman Academy. As compensation, the pope sent the monastery a printed and lavishly bound copy of the work. The original manuscript is now preserved at the Laurentian Library in Florence. Printed on March 1, 1515, the book was the first that Etienne Guillery produced after the end of his partnership with Ercole Nani. A native of Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Étienne Guillery worked in Rome as a bookseller beginning in 1506. Settled in the Parione district from 1508 onward, he operated a printing press from 1509 until at least 1524. The father of the bookseller Marcantonio Guillery, who was active in Rome from 1558 to 1562, he worked in partnership with Ercole Nani, a printer from Bologna, from 1510 to 1514. (Hubert Elie, Lorrains et Lorraine, Nancy, 1969, pp. 24–26.) A fine copy printed on paper with wide margins: height 307 mm. The edition is bound; the copy is washed, with traces of an ex-libris on the first leaf. A superb volume, one of the very few copies of this edition to have appeared on the market in several decades. This first edition from 1515 recounts the long reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14–37). From the outset, he is portrayed as a pretender, and his story is that of a despot whose ambition, cruelty, and mistrust are gradually revealed. Through underhanded maneuvers, he strips the Senate and the magistrates of all effective power; through increasingly frequent accusations of the crime of lese-majesty, he decimates the nobility: aided by unscrupulous ministers (including Sejanus), who were driven by Tiberius’s mad ambition and devious schemes, he finally stifles all aspirations toward moral superiority and freedom. Trials, scandals, and crimes even reached the imperial family. Tacitus briefly interrupts his description of these lamentable miseries to compare his arduous task as a historian of the Empire with that of chroniclers, who recount the glorious exploits and heroic struggles of the Republic.