Beschreibung:

Title: Tres Libri de Officiis, una cum Hieronymi Wolffii Commentariis: quibus ea potissimum tractantur, quae sunt huius argumenti propria, quaeque & a vitiis atque erroribus revocant... Author: Cicero, M[arcus] T[ullius] Place: Basel Publisher: Per Ioannem Oporinum Date: 1563 Description: [43], 670 pp. 25.5x17.5 cm (10x7") period vellum, blind tooled decoration, raised bands, hand-written title on spine. The Tres Libri comprises three historically important Cicero texts — De Senectute, De Amicitia, and Somnum Scipionis. The Wolff commentaries set this edition apart from the several earlier printed editions of the same titles from Cicero. Hieronymus Wolff [1516-1580], a pupil of Melanchthon and Camerarius at Wittenberg, was a professor of Greek and rector of the Augsburg gymnasium, from 1557 until his death. He was also a leading classical scholar, noted for important editions of the works of Isocrates and Demosthenes. As far as we know there are no records of any US institution housing this very rare first edition offered here. We have found only 3 copies of the later issue of 1569 in U.S. libraries. The present volume when compared to a copy of the later issue housed in the Houghton Library at Harvard shows essentially the same materials but with sections bound in a different order as well as the different information on the title page. The vellum is very likely a contemporary binding and certainly no later than the following century since the pastedown bears an ownership inscription in Latin with the hand-written date 1657. An elaborate blind-tooled design graces both front and rear covers, including 15 compartments with various personages illustrated and a phrase with each. By virtue of being blind-tooled the figures are not vivid but they’re entirely legible to a close examination, even with the naked eye. Also blind-tooled are four concentric rectangular panels. The designs of the front and rear covers are the same, including the compartments. An unusually nice copy of a first edition 16th century book that is quite scarce. This first edition is not noted in Moss’s Manual of Classical Bibliography. Lot Amendments Condition: Some darkening and wear to vellum, portion of the fore-edge of the front cover is frayed, revealing beneath several filler pages with hand-writing; some tanning to the first few pages, title page a little loose; very good. Item number: 238013