Opera by Tacitus, Publius Cornelius; Franciscus Puteolanus (ed.) - 1487

Milan: Antonius Zarotus, 1487. Second Edition. Hardcover (Full Leather). Very Good Condition. 19th century red morocco, gilt, hinges and spine rubbed and a little weak, but still generally sound and attractive. Added marbled endpapers and a description of the edition and a note on the binding penned on added blank endpapers. The second edition of Tacitus, much improved by Puteolanus from the first, with the editio princeps of The Life of Agricola. Once thought to have been printed in the 1470s, but now usually pegged as 1487. Likely washed, though gently, except for the first and final leaves (Agricola, leaves 176-187, with a dampstain in the margin, final two leaves darkened). Four small wormtrails in last section (leavs 121-end), two trails in the textblock but generally very unobtrusive. Top edge gilt and trimmed slightly when rebound, leaf numbers penciled lightly and neatly in the inner gutter.

Five 6 line and one 2 line initial colored in early or contemporary color, 37 lines set in a fine Roman typeface (often compared to Jenson and assumed to be set by him at one point), 187 leaves, with the blanks at 160 and 176, but lacking the final blank.

Graesse T7, Dibdin (Bibl. Spenc. v2) 461, Brunet V 633, Goff T7, ISTC it00007000

Provenance: With the label of A.C.C. Brodribb, but likely from his father C.W. Brodribb who wrote and published (in The American Library Annual) a poem describing this volume (laid in, with a penciled date for the binding of 1855; an inscription on an added endpaper bears the same date). Also laid in is a 1949 letter to A.C.C. Brodribb Esq. from L.A. Sheppard at The British Museum describing the volume (which he likely inherited following his father's death in 1945) Size: Folio. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 2-3 kilos. Category: History; Incunabula. Inventory No: 046404.