Plutarch's Vitae illustrium virorum

Plutarch's Vitae illustrium virorum
The 'R-Printer' (Adolph Rusch), c.1473-75
PLUTARCHUS (c. 45-c.120). Vitae illustrium virorum. Edited by Johannes Antonius Campanus. -SEXTUS Rufus. De historia Romana. [Strasbourg: R-Press type 1 (Adolf Rusch), c.1473-1475].

Heber copy of the second edition of Plutarch’s Lives, with illuminated initial. Plutarch’s work of biography and historiography pairs the lives of famous Romans and Greeks, drawing lessons from the contrast. This text was almost totally unknown to the Latin Middle Ages, but when Manuel Chrysoloras began teaching Greek in Italy in the 1390s, he set his pupils the exercise of translating it into Latin. The Lives appealed to Humanists because of the information it provides about personalities and events of Antiquity; it shaped the reception of classical antiquity and provided a major source for, among others, William Shakespeare. The text of this edition was set from that of the first, printed by Ulrich Han in Rome, c.1470-71, with the addition of printed headings. This copy is from the library of Richard Heber, whose library was described by Sir Walter Scott as "superior to all others in the world"; Thomas Campbell described him as "the fiercest and strongest of all the bibliomaniacs." HC 13124*; BMC I 62; BSB-Ink P-625; Bod-inc P-391; Goff P-831; ISTC ip00831000.

Two volumes, royal folio (392 x 279mm). 512 leaves (514, without first and last blanks in vol. 1). Opening illuminated initial with partial floral border, large initials in blue and red, red capital strokes (very faint dampstain affecting a few leaves, some light toning, some fingersoiling, leaf oo10 remargined, one leaf with large patch in blank margin). 18th-century russia gilt, index tabs (front boards detached from both volumes and rear hinges weak, worn). Provenance: marginalia – Dukes of Devonshire (duplicate, sale note from 1815) – Richard Heber (1773-1833, English book collector and classicist; Biblioteca Heberiana stamp).