PAOLO DIACONO (720-799) - De Origine et gestis Regum Langobardorum Libri VI. Paris: Giovanni Paruo e Iodoco Badio Ascensio, 1514....

PAOLO DIACONO (720-799) - De Origine et gestis Regum Langobardorum Libri VI. Paris: Giovanni Paruo e Iodoco Badio Ascensio, 1514. A good copy of the editio princeps of the work by Paolo Diacono which constitutes a fundamental evidence for the history of the Lombards. The author, native from Lombardy, wrote the work in Montecassino between 787 and 789. The present edition is based on manuscript E2 and it is the first publication of a works that was widespread in the previous centuries; the second edition followed a year after printed by Konrad Peutinger (C. Heath, p. 114). The present copy is the same sold by Sotheby's in 1962 and the only recorded as having sold at auction in recent years (RBH). Folio (265 x 194mm). Title within elaborate woodcut border, woodcut initials (two small marginal repairs on title, A4-A5 with some light dampstaining at top margin which continues with a lighter stain in the following leaves). Modern boards reusing 18th-century marbled paper and antique vellum on spine, speckled edges. Provenance: early ownership note on title. The lot is accompanied by a temporary import certificate