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61 - VALERIUS MAXIMUS (1st century AD).
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Estimate €4,000 - €6,000
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Description
VALERIUS MAXIMUS (1st century AD). *Facta et dicta memorabilia*. Venice: P.F., B.R., S.F., Z.F., 1 July 1478. A rare incunabulum edition, with only one copy recorded at auction (RBH), of Valerius Maximus’s celebrated collection of exempla, one of the most widely read and influential historical works of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Composed during the reign of Tiberius, the work brings together hundreds of episodes from Roman and Greek history, organised according to virtues, vices and exemplary circumstances, and intended to provide both moral models and a repertoire of material for orators. Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the *Facta et dicta memorabilia* remained a cornerstone of humanist education and one of the most frequently consulted repositories of ancient history. Edited by the humanist Bonus Accursius, the present edition belongs to the exceptionally scarce output of the Venetian press identified by the initials P.F., B.R., S.F. and Z.F., most likely representing an association of several printers or publishers whose identities remain uncertain, and which, based on current evidence, is known solely from this edition. The typefaces (112R and 112Gk) appear to be those also used by Jacobus de Fivizzano and Andreas de Paltasichis (British Museum Catalogue of Books Printed in the 15th Century, V, 266). Folio (288 × 200 mm). 136 leaves, including the initial blank leaf; the first leaf containing the prologue is supplied in manuscript in a contemporary or early hand, with an illuminated initial. Roman type, 36 lines per page; spaces for initials with guide letters (prologue leaf in manuscript; occasional foxing). Nineteenth-century full morocco, covers with gilt borders, spine lettered and decorated in gilt. (1)
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About the sale BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
Auction location
Auction time 10/15/2026 at 2:45 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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