RENOUARD’S PLINY
PLINY the Younger.
Panegyricus Trajano Augusto dictus.
Paris, [Charles Crapelet for] Antoine-Augustin Renouard, [An IV] 1796.
18mo in 6s, pp. vii, [1, blank], 212, [2]; with half-title; a very good copy in contemporary citron morocco, spine gilt in compartments with gilt red and green lettering-pieces, edges gilt, pink pastepaper endpapers; a few minor marks, corners slightly bumped.
An attractive edition of Pliny’s only surviving oration, a panegyric to Trajan, published by the book collector, bibliographer, and businessman-turned-printer Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765–1853).
Among Renouard’s earliest publishing efforts, the Panegyricus belongs to a series of small-format works in Latin and French uniformly printed – albeit by different printers – in 270 copies each. A notice at the rear advertises that ‘this volume, and the Cornelius Nepos which is currently in the press with Didot jeune, are printed on papier vélin superfin, from the Courtalin mill, the only one which I will use from now on for all of the volumes in this collection’ (trans.).
