VITAE PONTIFICUM

[Treviso]: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis, 10 Feb. 1485. 310 x 210 mm. (12 1/4 x 8 1/4"). [135] leaves (lacking final blank).
Contemporary wooden boards backed with (period?) deerskin, flat spine, two later black leather labels, front board with remnants of straps nailed on, rear board with brass catch plates (rear hinge reinforced at final leaf). In a fine modern brown linen clamshell box with black morocco label on back. Goff P-770; BMC VI, 897; ISTC ip00770000. ◆Bottom of joints with three-inch cracks, two-inch crack to middle of rear joint, deerskin somewhat rubbed, a couple of pages with short wax stains to text (nothing illegible), final quire with minor foxing and stains to margins, occasional pale marginal browning, paper defects, or faint dampstains, but still a very good copy--clean, very fresh, and almost entirely bright internally, printed within spacious margins, and in a sturdy binding retaining a good deal of its antique appeal.

First printed in 1479, the "Lives of the Popes" is offered here in its third and final incunabular edition. The "Vitae" is the chief work of the historian Platina (1421-81), who also wrote treatises on politics, philosophy, rhetoric, and even cookery. He was particularly well suited to chronicle the lives of the pontiffs because the vicissitudes of his personal well-being were so intimately tied to papal succession: in 1464 under Pius II, he was named papal abbreviator, a post especially created for him; under Paul II, he was imprisoned and brutalized for "neopagan impiety" when he objected too impertinently at Paul's abolition of the abbreviator's post; then, under Sixtus IV, he was made Vatican librarian. This was the eighth and penultimate work to be printed by Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis (Giovanni Rosso of Vercelli) at Treviso between 1480 and 1485, before he moved his business to Venice. There, he issued at least 55 more incunabula (per ISTC) by himself or in collaboration with other family members. This is not a flawless copy, but the leaves are made from that incunabular paper that crackles when you turn the pages, the margins here are well beyond merely comfortable, and the wooden boards (if not the deerskin spine) are original and appealing..