M. Plauti Comoediae XX, Ex Antiquis, Recentioribusque exemplaribus inuicem collatis, diligentissime recognitae. Quarum carmina, magna ex parte in mensum suum restituta sunt. Authoris vita. Argumenta singularum Comoediarum. Tralatio Graecarum dictionum. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1530, folio, a.e.g.
THE MOST IMPORTANT 16TH CENTURY EDITION OF PLAUTUS: ESTIENNE'S MAGNIFICENT 1530 FOLIO, HERE IN A PHENOMENAL FINE BINDING.
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"With one important exception, Plautine publication in France during the first third of the century seems anaemic by comparison with that in Germany. That exception is Robertus Stephanus’ (Robert Estienne’s) handsome edition of Plautus’s Comoediae XX at Paris in February of 1530, following close upon that humanist printer’s companion edition of Terence the preceding July. Robert’s son Henri lets us know some decades later how highly his father prized Plautus, especially in his later years, as the most cherished of all the Latin writers except Cicero."
[Stephanus, H. (1576) De Plauti Latinitate Dissertatio. In: De Latinitate Falso Suspecta. Paris, pp.363-400, quoted in Hardin, Richard, "The Reception of Plautus in Northern Europe: The Earlier Sixteenth Century", 2012, Brepols Publishers NV, pp.349-350]
VERY RARE. USTC records only 12 copies held institutionally worldwide, with NO COPIES HELD IN THE UNITED STATES. The holding institutions are generally only of the most important collections: the BnF, the British Library, the Bodleian, etc. An exceptionally rare book both in commerce and institutionally. We can trace only one appearance of this edition at auction, achieving £42,500 at Bonhams 29th March 2017 lot 255, though that copy had important provenance, being from the library of Nicholas Udall, it is the only copy we can trace to have sold.
This edition is very important among Estienne's oeuvre as it was instrumental in the formation of his thesaurus "in which Estienne had virtually founded modern Latin lexicography." It is also one of Estienne's earliest imprints, and quite possibly the rarest of his printings both institutionally and in commerce, and is certainly the rarest Estienne imprint we have handled.
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Provenance:
Very small green bookplate to foot of rear pastedown of the 19th century bookseller "B. Klotchkoff Librarie, Petersbourg" (Russia). Books with this bookplate are documented in a catalogue printed in 1894 in St Petersburg. Many of his books have since been acquired by important institutional collections, such as the National Library of Congress (USA), the Estonian National Library, etc.
Colour bookplate of Whitney Davis at Glenmore to front pastedown (circa early 1910).
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Size: 216 x 305 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(1), *1-10, a1-z8, aa1-ii8, (2)]
18th century very fine full green morocco finely tooled with large gilt borders to the boards and fine gilt tooling in compartments between raised bands to the spine. Spine sunned but remains highly attractive indeed on the shelf. Some minor discolouration to boards, but the binding is extremely attractive, with thick sumptuous leather. 18th century marbled endpapers. The text collates as complete, sans the original blanks, with the pagination terminating at 256 as per USTC, and with the signatures collating correctly as according to other bibliographies. Bookplate to front pastedown. Small scored out ownership inscription (c.early 19th century) to front free endpaper verso (illegible). Early shelf reference mark, presumably from an original blank, pasted to rear blank, likely circa the late 17th century. Very small (12x25mm) bookplate to foot of rear pastedown as described under provenance, above. All edges gilt. The text is generally bright and clean. The full text is legible without loss of sense. Some marginal dampstaining visible at h1-l1, and then extremely faintly thereafter, until becoming more visible circa leaf bb1 to the end, with the last (approximately) ten leaves of the text block having some more visible marginal dampstaining, not affecting the legibility of the text. Despite that, the text block is generally very clean and attractive, with Estienne's classic beautiful typography.
[Moreau III, 2250; USTC 146118; Adams P1489; Renouard 34/11].
