VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.) - photo 1
VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.) - photo 2
VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.) - photo 3
VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.) - photo 4
VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.) - photo 5

VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.)

Lot 50
09.07.2025 10:30UTC +01:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1450454
Lot 50 | VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.)
Estimate value
£ 4 000 – 6 000
VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Gaius (1st century A.D.)
Facta et dicta memorabilia. Venice: Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen, 1474.
Second Venice edition (fourth overall) of Valerius Maximus' lastingly popular compendium of historical anecdotes. Facta et dicta memorabilia (‘Memorable Deeds and Sayings’) is a collection of around 900 exempla compiled during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, each introduced in the present copy by an initial painted alternately in red and blue. It is organized into sections illustrating various virtues, vices, merits, or faults, and is intended as a resource for students of rhetoric to draw upon for examples in speeches. Valerius Maximus drew heavily on earlier writers like Cicero and Livy and the collection preserves many stories and fragments from now-lost sources. Most anecdotes focus on Roman history, though each section ends with an appendix of stories from other cultures, especially Greek. HC 15776*; GW M49172; Goff V-26; BMC V 230; BSB-Ink V-13; Bod-inc V-010; ISTC iv00026000.

Royal quarto (288 x 195mm). 163 leaves (of 164, without the blank S10). Capital spaces with printed guide letters, illuminated opening initial in red, green and blue on a ground of gold, other initials painted in alternate red and blue with penwork flourishes, headlines in early manuscript (first and last quires rehinged, occasional mostly marginal dampstains, tiny marginal wormholes in final 20 leaves, small hole in S9 affecting a few letters). Contemporary Italian, probably Venetian, blindstamped calf, metal bosses and four engraved clasp plates engraved ‘IHS’ (rebacked, some wear particularly to corners with some loss of leather, lacking straps, clasp plates missing some nails). Provenance: annotations in preliminary leaves in an elegant humanist hand and another dated 30 April 1581 recording a debt by one Ser Bernardo to his son Battista at the school of Gieronimo Michieli – Francesco Melchiori Opitergino (booklabel dated in ink manuscript ?1643) – Baron Horace Landau, 1824–1903 (bookplate) – W. Senn-Dürck, Basel-Riehen (1904-2001; booklabel); by descent.
Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Antiquarian books, Books and manuscripts, Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.07.2025 – 09.07.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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