‘P’ FOR POMPEIUS
JUSTINUS, Marcus Junianus; Cornelius NEPOS.
Trogi Pompei externae historiae in compendium ab Justino redactae. Externorum imperatorum vitae authore Aemylio Probo.
Venice, ‘in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Asulani soceri’, January 1522.
8vo, ff. [4], 5–204; text in italic, woodcut Aldine device to title-page and last page, capital spaces with guide letters, initials supplied in red ink and initial P on f. 4r in red on decorative foliate ground in blue and yellow (likely early nineteenth-century); small marginal hole to f. 6, short closed tear at head of f. 111, some light foxing, occasional marks; overall very good in a Roman vellum binding of c. 1820, spine decorated in gilt with gilt-lettered red and black morocco labels (slightly chipped), edges red, marbled endpapers; lower cover slightly marked; occasional faint early marginalia, nineteenth-century label ‘Bouchard libraire 69 Place d’Espagne à Rome’ and twentieth-century Harvard College Library bookplate to front pastedown, old bookseller’s description pasted to flyleaf, blind-embossed Harvard stamp at head of title, Harvard ink stamp and release stamp at foot of title verso.
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Trogi Pompei externae historiae in compendium ab Justino redactae. Externorum imperatorum vitae authore Aemylio Probo.
First Aldine edition of Justinus’ abridgement of the lost Historiae Philippicae of Pompeius Trogus, and of Nepos’ De viris illustribus, with a decorated initial to the opening of the text, likely executed in the early nineteenth century when the work was bound in Rome.
Justinus’ work includes several striking passages ‘such as the description of the multitude of Athenians pouring out to see Alcibiades on his return from exile, and of Brennus and his army of Gauls at Delphi. Since Trogus’ work has not survived, Justin’s book is valuable for the history of Macedon and the Hellenistic kingdoms. It was widely read in the Middle Ages’ (Oxford Companion to Classical Literature). Nepos’ work comprises a series of biographical sketches of generals, including Themistocles, Miltiades, Epaminondas, Pausanias, Hannibal, Hamilcar, and Datames the Persian; ‘the most interesting character portrayal is that of Alcibiades’ (ibid.).
Provenance:
1. The heirs of the bookseller Jean Bouchard (1716–1795) operated from the Piazza di Spagna in Rome until 1843; they likely had the book bound and the initials added c. 1820.
2. Presented to Harvard College Library in 1909 by Mary Brandegee (née Bryant Pratt, 1871–1956) in memory of her grandfather, William Fletcher Weld (1800–1881), the shipping magnate who in 1870 had funded the construction of Harvard’s Weld Hall.
Adams J-723; BM STC Italian, p. 683; USTC 836752; Ahmanson-Murphy 209; Renouard 96.9.
