LATINIUS, LATINUS. Latini Latinii Viterbiensis, Bibliotheca Sacra et Profana. Sive observationes, correctiones, coniecturae, & variae lectiones in sacros et profanos scriptores e marginalibus notis codicum eiusdem. A Dominico Macro Melitensi Cathedralis Viterbien. olim canonico theologo, sacrarumque Inquisit. & Indicis Congregat. Consultore, Protonotario Apost. ac Comite Palatino Collectae. Et nunc primum e Bibliotheca Brancaccia in lucem editae. Rome (Romae), Sumptibus Pontii Bernardon, Via Parionis sub signo Virtutis, 1677. Folio. 2 parts in 1: (X, including 2 portraits),(VIII),213,(3); 79(1) p. Vellum 33 cm (Ref: Graesse 4,119; Ebert 11760: 'scarce and philologically interesting') (Details: 6 thongs laced through the joints. Short title in ink on the back. Title in red & black. Signed woodcut printer's mark on the title, depicting a woman in a landscape, she holds a book; the motto reads: 'Virtuti Fortuna Comes', or 'Fortune is the companion of virtue'. Full page oval portrait of Latinius, engraved by Catharina Angela Bussi facing the title. Full page portrait of the cardinal Ioannes Gualterius Slusius, engraved by 'Io. Nolin' (Jean-Baptiste Nolin) before the 'dedictatio'. (See: wittert.ulg.ac.be/fr/dico/no/nolin_notice.html) Some large woodcut initials) (Condition: Binding soiled. Upper joint beginning to split near the head of the spine. Some small holes in the front flyleaf. Front flyleaf worn, a few small tears in its right margin. 3 small stamps on the title, and 2 small inscriptions on the title. Small tear in the lower margin of the title repaired. Paper age-toned; a few gatherings browning. Some pencil. An old Cyprianus specialist once wrote 6 small references in ballpoint in the margins of 2 pages) (Note: The Italian cleric and humanist Latino Latini, or Latinus Latinius, 1513-1593, devoted his long life to his employers and his studies; he held soft jobs as secretary of several cardinals, and devoted the rest of his time to classical studies and the study of the churchfathers, especially Tertullian and Cyprianus. When he was a young man he acquired, after an interrupted study of law, a copy of the Gryphius edition of Cicero by the great P. Victorius. He was so touched by the elegance of that work, that he decided to use Cicero as a guide for his style. He was appointed member of the papal committee which had to purge the 'Decretum Gratiani', a legal textbook of Canon law compiled in the 12th century, out of which had grown in time a 'decretorum immensam sylvam' (Leaf *2 verso). He was rewarded by Pope Gregory XIII with an annual pension of 150 ducati. Latinius produced an edition of Cyprianus, published by Paullus Manutius in 1568, the socalled 'edition Manutiana'. He did however not want to associate his name with this edition. He feared that his reputation was at stake, because he had manipulated the text of Cyprian, where it conflicted with the manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures. (Schoenemann 1, p. 120). He left his manuscripts and books to the Chapter (Capitulum) of the Cathedral of Viterbo (Leaf *3 verso of this 'vita'). Observations, corrections, conjectures and 'variae lectiones' which he had jotted down in his manuscripts and in the margins of his books were published postumely by the theologian Domenico Magri, or Dominicus Macrus of Malta, 1604-1672, once Canon (canonicus) of the Cathedral of Viterbo, member of the Inquisition, and proconsul of the notorious Index of forbidden books. The work of Latinius is preceded by a 4 page biography by Magri, the source of the above mentioned data. The work contains Latinius' orderly organized observations etc. on 45 church fathers and on 45 profane classical authors. 34 pages are dedicated to Augustine, and 36 to Hilary of Poitiers, 15 are on Ambrosius and 15 on Tertullian. The collection of Latinius came apparantly into the possession of Magri, because he bequeathed it after his death in 1572 to the cardinal and bibliophile Francesco Maria Brancaccio, 1592-1675 (Leaf *1 recto). Brancaccio was Magri's former superior, who had been bishop of Viterbo from 1638 till 1670. The cardinal's huge collection of manuscripts and books is now held by the 'Bibliotheca Nazionale di Napoli'. The book is dedicated by the publisher Bernardon to Ioannes Gualterius Slusius the younger, or Jean Walther de Sluse, or Jean Gaultier de Sluse, born in Liege, and of noble birth. He does so, because this edition of 1677 was published at his expenses. Gualterius Slusius was head of the Latin language department of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the 'Secretaria brevium ad principes et epistolarum latinarum' of pope Innocentius XI. It was his task to prepare in Latin the papal and curial documents. He was the owner of a famous book collection. § This title seems to be rare, it does not figure in the registers of the 'Jahrbuch der Auctionspreise', nor in 'Rare Books Hub, formerly the Americana Exchange') (Provenance: 3 small stamps, all the same, of the 'Bibliotheca Gymnasii Arnstadiensis'; in ink below the printer's mark 'Biblioth. Gymnas. Arnstadt'; Arnstadt is a small city 40 km south of Erfurt) (Collation: pi4, leaf p1 portrait of Latinius, after p2 an inserted portrait of the dedicatee Jean Gaultier de Sluse) *4, a-2d4; A-C4, D2, E-K4, L2) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 110250 Euro 425.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Altertum, Altertumswissenschaft, Antike, Antiquity, Latin literature, Patristics, Patristik, classical philology, early christianity, frühes Christentum, römische Literatur