Ciceronian Speeches
CICERO, Marcus Tullius.
M. Tulli Ciceronis orationes omnes: perpetuis notis logicis, arithmeticis, ethicis, politicis, historicis, antiquitatis, illustratae per Ioann. Thomam Freigium. Cum indice copiosissimo. Frankfurt, ‘typis et impensis Joannis Pressii viduae’ (vol. 2: ‘per Theodoricum Wesselium’), 1653–4.
Three vols, 8vo, pp. [16], 768, [68, index]; ‘750’ (i.e. 760), [70, index]; 764, [32]; woodcut Wechel device to titles, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces; some browning and foxing; a good set in contemporary stiff vellum, yapp fore-edges, title and volume numbers in manuscript to spines; some discolouring to spines and front board of vol. I; ownership inscription of James Ibbetson (1734) to vol. I with his armorial bookplate to vol. III (remains of same in vol. I), ownership inscriptions of William Boscawen (1784) and of various members of the Espinasse family to front endpapers (1811–1850), initials ‘JWE’ stamped to upper boards (see below).
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M. Tulli Ciceronis orationes omnes: perpetuis notis logicis, arithmeticis, ethicis, politicis, historicis, antiquitatis, illustratae per Ioann. Thomam Freigium. Cum indice copiosissimo.
An edition of Cicero’s speeches with notes by Johannes Thomas Freig (1543–1583), published by Sarah Press, with a remarkable run of English provenance.
Philologist and jurist, Freig was a follower of Petrus Ramus. His fiery temperament contributed to his expulsion from his professorial post at Freiburg University, after which he worked as a proofreader in Basel at the Officina Henricpetrina. Having lost many members of his family to plague, he succumbed himself in 1583.
Sarah Press was the daughter of the French printer-publisher Claude de Marne (d. 1610), one of the heirs of Andreas Wechel, who had moved to Frankfurt after escaping the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre. In 1614 she married Clemens Schleich (d. 1638) who was active in both Frankfurt and Hanau. A few years after Schleich’s death in Leipzig from dropsy, Sarah married Johann Press. Johann worked in collaboration with the printer Dietrich Wessel, whose name appears in the imprint of the second volume here, and died in 1646. His printer’s device, used here by Sarah, is that of Andreas Wechel with the addition of the initials ‘I. P.’ The earliest publication on VD17 bearing Sarah’s imprint is a collection of proverbs issued in the year of Johann’s death; her other output included works of law and politics.
Provenance: James Ibbetson (1717–1781), purchased while he was at Westminster School in 1734 for 19s; later that year he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was a Fellow 1737–1749; he received his D.D. in 1752. Later in the possession of William Boscawen (1752–1811), of Eton and Exeter College, lawyer, translator of Horace, and son-in-law of Ibbetson; and subsequently of various members of the Espinasse family: James Espinasse, the gift of his brother, 1811; Robert Espinasse, 1816; James William Espinasse of Eton, 1839; Richard Espinasse of Christ Church, Oxford, 1850.
Three copies traced in the US (Mayo Clinic, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia) and three in the UK (Bodleian, CUL, Peterborough Cathedral).
USTC 2552164, 2619044, 2696641; VD17 547:697522L, 1:084213R, 1:084215F.