Ex Erasmi recognitione, with JOANNIS BAPTISTAE and index
Duodecim Caesares (The Twelve Caesars) Ex Erasmi recognitione, with JOANNIS BAPTISTAE and index
Simon de Colines, 1543.
Handsome Erasmus edition. 8vo. 160 x 100mm. Early calf boards recently rebacked in tan calf, gilt titles to the spine. Engraved title page vignette and numerous decorative woodcut initials. In very good condition.
Private secretary to Hadrian, Suetonius's account of the life of twelve Caesars is racy and gossip filled, but has become a primary source for scholars of the Roman period. Caesars are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Calligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian.
Suetonius's "Lives of the Caesars" was held in such high esteem, that, shortly after 1500AD, as printing became more commonplace, no fewer than eighteen editions had been published. Erasmus, a noted scholar, particularly of classic Latin texts, published his edition of Suetonius with the purpose, he stated in his original preface, of encouraging rulers "to order their lives and habits as if in a mirror" (1518).
Simon de Colines, credited with creating the italic font, first published Erasmas's Suetonius in 1527 with his rabbit pressmark - this edition has his later satyr pressmark.
Stock ID: 36373
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