CICERO'S ORATIONS, 1559, FROM THE FAMED ALDINE PRESS

CICERO. Orationum. Pars I. Venetiis: Aldus, 1559. Octavo, 20th-century full brown morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated boards, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $1750.

Second edition of the first volume of Paulus Manutius' important edition of Cicero's orations, from his famed Aldine press in Venice, with the Aldine anchor and dolphin imprint on the title page and the colophon, very handsomely bound.

"Cicero's method was to construct a commentarius or skeleton of his speech, which he used when speaking. If he was pleased with a speech, he then wrote it out for publication" (Britannica VI, 354). His political speeches were generally delivered before the senate or the people at large, and his pleas were made before jurors. He is known to have composed 107 orations, of which only 77 (either complete or fragmentary) have survived: this volume has 12 orations, including his first known speech, "Pro Quinctio," and the seven "In Verrem" speeches that launched his public career. Editor and publisher Paulus Manutius was the son of famed Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius, founder of the Aldine press in 1495. The Aldine press was a vital source of publications of classical Latin and (especially) Greek authors during the Renaissance; his son Paulus was an important Cicero scholar in his own right, and his editions of Cicero are highly regarded. Manutius first published his three-volume edition of Cicero's Orations in 1554. Text in Latin. Ahmanson-Murphy 469.

Fine condition.