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OFFICIORUM LIBRI III. DE AMICITIA. DE SENECTUTE. DE PARADOXA. DE SOMNIO SCIPIONIS.
(Venezia [Venice]: Alessandro Paganini, 1515). 98 x 50 mm. (3 7/8 x 2"). 3 p.l., CXXXII leaves.
Early 19th century olive brown calf decorated in blind, raised bands, gilt lettering, red morocco label, marbled endpapers. Front flyleaf with mostly effaced ownership signature. Brunet II, 21-22 ("very rare"); EDIT16 CNCE 14575; USTC 822101. Two very small portions of lost patina, minor signs of wear to the leather, gilt on label not especially bright, but the binding entirely solid and perfectly inoffensive. The first three leaves a little browned and with a dampstain in the top few lines, other trivial imperfections, but the text generally very clean and fresh.
Small enough to fit into the palm of a hand, this printing of five popular treatises by Cicero exemplifies three of printer Alessandro Paganini's innovations: the vigesimo-quarto (or 24mo) book, a typeface that's a blend of italic and roman, and the concept of a publishing series. The son of Venetian printer Paganino Paganini, Alessandro (fl. 1509-38) sought to outdo rival Aldus Manutius in the production of small format versions of classics as well as cursive-style typefaces. In 1515, he began producing a series of books in 24mo, beginning with Dante and Petrarch, and continuing with a mix of Classical and Italian authors. The Oxford Companion to the Book declares his books "visually splendid, if not always easy on the eye"; that seeming contradiction is demonstrated by the text here, a very elegant semi-italic that perhaps is not as easy to read as a simple roman serif--but worth the effort for the beauty. Offered in the most portable form available in the 16th century, our volume contains Cicero's essays on moral responsibility, friendship, old age, paradoxical Stoic aphorisms, and the dream vision of Scipio. The diminutive size that makes this edition--and other books in this series--so appealing also makes them scarce, since small books, like other objects no bigger than a mouse, tend to be easy to lose. Works from Paganini's series of 24mos are quite scarce in the market, and we could trace no copies at all of the Cicero in RBH or ABPC. OCLC and USTC between them find just seven copies of the Cicero in libraries, none in North America. (ST19567-062)
Price: $9,500.00