Livy's Historiae Romanae decades

Livy's Historiae Romanae decades
Philippus Pincius for Lucantonio Giunta, 1495
LIVIUS, Titus (c.59 BCE-c.17 CE). Historiae Romanae decades. Venice: Philippus Pincius for Lucantonio Giunta, 3 November 1495. [Bound with:] SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS, Gaius (86-c.35 BCE). De coniuratione Catilinae. –De bello Jugurthino. [Venice: Christophorus de Pensis de Mandello, after 14 November 1495.]

Two 15th-century editions of Roman historiography, illustrated in a contemporary binding. This is the second illustrated edition of Livy’s paradigmatic history of Rome, surviving only in fragments yet still vitally important and famed for the lactea ubertas ("milky richness") of its style. The woodcuts, which first appeared in Joannes Rubeus’s 1493 edition, illustrate the most striking episodes of Roman history; the elaborate borders are reused from earlier works by Giovanni Ragazzo, including his Plutarch (see lot 151). The second work bound here is Sallust’s accounts of the Catilinarian conspiracy and the Jugurthine War. HC 10141*, 14229*; BMC V 496, 474; BSB-Ink L-194, S-49; Bod-inc S-033; IGI 5780, 8559; Essling 34, 51; Goff L-247, S-81; ISTC il00247000, is00084000.

Super-chancerey folio (313 x 210mm). First work: 273 leaves (of 274, without final blank); second work: 110 leaves. First work: 3 full-page woodcut borders with vignettes, woodcuts throughout (some repeats), woodcut initials (one colored in blue), printer’s device in red on final leaf; second work: woodcut of Sallust and his editors on first leaf, woodcut initials (first few leaves chipped, dampstaining throughout, some repaired wormholes, some spots and stains, last 2 leaves repaired with a few letters in facsimile). Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, brass catchplates, remains of paper label on upper board (rebacked, joints cracked but sturdy, worn, large gouge in rear board). Provenance: marginalia – acquired from William H. Schab, New York, 9 May 1955.