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50 - PLUTARCH. Παραλληλων βιοι Ρωμαιων και Ελληνων. Paralellum vi…
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Estimate €4,000 - €5,000
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Description
PLUTARCH. Παραλληλων βιοι Ρωμαιων και Ελληνων. Paralellum vitæ Romanorum et Græcorum quadraginta novem. Florence, Filippo Giunta, 1517. In-folio, soft vellum, smooth titled spine, handwritten title on gutter edge (Early binding). First edition, in Greek. The Parallel Lives (or Lives of Illustrious Men) of Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 44-c. 125), a collection of fifty biographies of famous Greeks and Romans that was the bedside book of Montaigne ("voilà pourquoi, en toutes sortes, c'est mon homme que Plutarque"), Shakespeare, Racine (whose copy of this editio princeps, copiously annotated, is held by the BnF), Rousseau and Goethe are all well known. The first edition in Latin translation appeared in Rome in 1470. A sumptuous and rare Greek printing from the Florentine Giunta press, whose mark adorns the last leaf. Only the dedicatory epistle to the chancellor Marcello Virgilio Adriani and the papal authorisation from Leo X are printed in Latin. This is one of the last publications by Filippo I Giunta, known as il Vecchio, the founder of the Giunta Florentine printing house in 1497, who died in September 1517. A fine copy (300 x 208 mm), not rubricated, with a few old handwritten annotations. A Greek preface to Xenophon's Cyropaedia of [8] ff. has been bound between ff. 8 and 9, but does not belong to the edition. Handwritten bookplate cut out and dampstain on title (doubled leaf); occasional small foxing; two small tears repaired with typographical mark on last leaf. Binding restored. Adams, P-1609 - Brunet, IV, 735 - Graesse, V, 354 - Dibdin, II, 341 - Renouard, xli: 99 - Delfiol-Camerini, n°104 - Hoffmann, III, 174 - Schweiger, I, 259 - PMM, n°48.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
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Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
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