Folio. 1585 Taciti (Tacitus), Opera Quae Exstant, editor Justus Lipsius. Plantin

An important and influential printing, Lipsius' successful effort to relate the 16th century religious and civil turmoil to Rome at the time of Tacitus, with the purpose of providing insight from a previous time with similar societal issues; this copy with 16th century annotations related specifically to the works cultural importance. This is the third, and first edition it the completed form, of Justus Lipsius' translation and commentary on Tacitus' work.

Lipsius is mainly credited with pointing late 16th century European leadership to Tacitus, and he was successful in doing so. After Lipsius, Tacitus' opinions and theories on how to deal with religious and political upheaval became standard teaching fare at the leading Universities of Europe.

This copy is heavily annotated (in the abbreviated Latin handwriting style of the late 16th century) to Chapter 12, and these are the chapters dealing with the political intrigue and upheaval of Rome that was so important to the 16th century scholars.

Printed by the important and influential Plantin Press.

The BnF (the National Library of France) notes in their website (reliures.bnf.fr) devoted to historical bindings that the IHS spine decoration is a point of provenance for the College Louis-le-Grand (College de Clermont).

Provenance -

The heavy impression of the Jesuit "IHS" to the front boards, with the three nails under, and a monogram at the top. This tool has been identified as being used for prize bindings issued by the Jesuit College Louis-Le-Grand; I'm never happy with historical accreditation, but I did find a matching binding, issued as a prize binding in 1703 by the College (see Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1655 Ecclesiasticorum Verteris...) and can confirm.

Side note, every catalogue referencing these prize bindings simply notes the presence of a "monogram", but I believe I've identified the monogram as "AM", the Auspice Maria monogram.

Secondly, someone pasted in a previous sales catalogue listing. I found this listing (page 49) in a "Janvier 1898" catalogue of La Librairie Ancienne de A. Claudin" (scanned into Google Books as "Archives du Bibliophile, 1897").

Of note, the address of Claudin is within a mile of the College that bound the book.

Bibliographic Details -

Curiously catalogued twice by USTC, numbers 422365 and 402074; not rare, but important and found in many of the world's finest libraries (McGill, Vaticana, Beinecke, Pantin-Moretus, BnF, many Cambridge UK libraries, BL, Bodleian, Harry Ransom, etc.)

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 33 x 23 x 3 cm. Folio. Leather binding. Boards with central gilt Jesuit medallion of College Louis-le-Grand and outer border of oak leaves and gilt roll. Spine with five raised bands, five compartments with central gilt leaves and floret tool, one compartment with "IHS' emblem, and one with "Taciti Opera" in gilt. Marbled edges. Marbled endpapers. Printer's mark. One fold-out and one illustration of keys (in the commentary).

Pages - xii, folding plate, 251 [1], viii, 187 [1], viii, 48, 11 leaves of index (complete index, but lacking final blank leaf)

Collation - *6, folding plate, A-X6, **4, A-P6, Q4, Aa4, Bb-Ee6, Ff-Gg4, Hh3 (missing blank Hh4). Both USTC catalogues note that last leaf was a blank.

Condition -

See pictures. Leather chipping at bottom edge of front board. Edge and corner wear to boards, and some rubs, a few worm holes. Front joint started 2" at top/bottom; despite notes, leather does not feel dried out. Repair of chip at top of spine. Hinges cracked. Rear of pastedown with ticket of old bookseller and "1193 10,00"; also stray ink marks on this leaf. Blank endpaper is mounted on tab at gutter.

Text block toned throughout, with occasional dog-eared corner, page edge chip, thumbing, fox spot, candle ember mark, etc. Top o title page with erased number (78221) and a price below year (both hard to see). Richly annotated with underlining and marginal commentary through Chapter 12, then only occasional. The prize binding did clip the marginal notes, unfortunately. Very occasional small worm hole (nearly none). Leaf Aa3 bottom corner chipped. A little more toning, foxing at rear. Water stain at top corner of gathering Bb, no text affected; occasionally reappears to end.