Iurisconsultorum vitae.

(Law.) RUTILIO (Bernardino)

Iurisconsultorum vitae.

Description: FIRST EDITION, decorated initials and ornaments, title and first two woodcut initials in early hand-colouring (most probably late 16thC/early 17thC), title a little dusty to outer margin, small clean tear from lower edge repaired, touching couple of letters to verso, small paper flaw to title fore-edge and to lower edge of P4, intermittent very slight browning, small clean tear (flaw) along upper outer edge of Y1, pp. [16], 367, [1], 8vo, limp vellum recycled from a ms. legal document in Latin, dated Rome, 1600 (text on verso), yapp edges, lacking ties, ms. title inked to upper and lower edges, upper cover and head of spine, hinges detached, lower joint cracked, edges and spine darkened, head of spine torn (without loss), late 16thC ms. 'Laurentij Blasij et amicorum' (lightly crossed out) and c.1600 ms. 'Julij Benigni' at head of title, 17thC ms. 'Petri Servij Med[i]ci' at foot, early ms. heraldic escutcheon sketched to rear fep, 'Petrus Servius Medicus 1642' and ms. price inked to inner fold of rear cover, occasional early ms. marginalia, shelfmarks from the 3rd Earl of Sunderland's library to ffep. Preserved within blueish-green buckram folding box.

Publication Details: Rome: Antonio Blado, 1536

Notes: A very good, genuine copy, with a little charming early hand-colouring, of this scarce, interesting work on the lives of ancient Roman jurists. Bound in a manuscript legal document on vellum, dated 1600, most probably recycled from the professional archive of an early Italian owner of this copy.Born in the Veneto, Bernardino Rutilio (1504-38) studied law and philosophy at Padua and Rome. His first work, a study of Cicero, led him to correspond with Guillaume Budé. He was later at service of Cardinal Ridolfi, bishop of Vicenza, to whom he dedicated 'Iurisconsultorum vitae' – the first colle...moreA very good, genuine copy, with a little charming early hand-colouring, of this scarce, interesting work on the lives of ancient Roman jurists. Bound in a manuscript legal document on vellum, dated 1600, most probably recycled from the professional archive of an early Italian owner of this copy.Born in the Veneto, Bernardino Rutilio (1504-38) studied law and philosophy at Padua and Rome. His first work, a study of Cicero, led him to correspond with Guillaume Budé. He was later at service of Cardinal Ridolfi, bishop of Vicenza, to whom he dedicated 'Iurisconsultorum vitae' – the first collection of biographies of famous ancient Roman jurists and one of several original humanist texts printed by the Blado press. It applies the classical and humanist genre of 'de viris illustribus' to the legal profession, providing narrative portraits of 77 jurists, from Papirius (6th century AD) to Tribonian (6th century BC), who edited the Justinian Code. Others include Cato, Mutius Scaevola, Balbus, Cassius Longinus and Tertullianus. Each biography focuses on anecdotes of worthy or unworthy professional deeds, often quoting public excerpts from speeches at trials. This copy bears evidence of interesting early provenance. Julius Benigni (d.1628) was probably the Secretary of the Congregation of Rites and Titular Archbishop of Thessalonica, also 'doctor in utroque'. Petrus Servius was a Roman physician with a great interest in antiquities; he was involved in scholarly debates against the classicist Johann Georg Graevius. The copy was later in the library of Charles (1674-1722), 3rd Earl of Sunderland. Sunderland – 'a lavish and even extravagant buyer' – the Duke of Roxburghe, Robert and Edward Harley, and the Earl of Pembroke were 'the first great collectors of early-printed books, not only in England but in Europe' (De Ricci, p.33). Sunderland's library comprised 20,000 early books, the present having been left uncommonly bound in its original vellum. The collection, housed at Blenheim Palace in the 1880s, was eventually sold in 'five memorable sales' (De Ricci, p.40). Columbia, Texas, Georgia, Yale and UCLA copies recorded in the US. Bernoni, Dei Torresani…, n.39: 'Rarissima'; Brunet IV, 1470: 'Rare'; Adams R964. 'Bib. Sunderland.', (1881-3, pts 4-5), 10851; 'A catalogue of a portion of the library of Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton' (1891), p.169: 'From the Sunderland Collection.' S. de Ricci, 'English collectors of books & manuscripts (1530-1930)' (1930). HIDE