[LIVIUS, TITUS; SIGONIO, CARLO]. T. Livii Patavini Historiarum ab urbe condita, libri qui exstant XXXV cum universae historiae epitomis Caroli Sigonij scholia, quibus ijdem libri, atque epitomae partim emendantur, partim etiam explanantur, ab auctore multis in partibus aucta. Venetiis [Venice]: In Aedibus Manutianis [Manutius office (= Paulus Manutius & Aldus Manutius the younger)], ∞ D LXXII [1572].
THIRD EDITION. Three parts in one volume. Leather-bound, hardcover, thick folio (33 x 22 x 8.5 cm.), [54], 399, [1]; 109, [1] leaves; 52 p. Signatures: a⁶, a-f⁸, A-Z⁸, Aa-Zz⁸, Aaa-Ddd⁸; A-N⁸, O⁶; a-e⁴, f⁶. (Sigs. Ddd8 and ²O6 are blanks). Errors in foliation: 263 and 365 of the first section numbered 259 and 366 respectively. Latin text with some Greek, printed in roman type. Bound in full speckled calf, spine with six raised bands, red morocco lettering plate in second compartment, gilt bands and titles, dyed page edges. Initial and terminal blanks present. The title-page for each part with the large woodcut coat of arms of Paulus Manutius (granted 1571) surrounded by an allegorical border. 'M' in Roman date represented by infinity symbol. Printer given as Paulus Manutius by Ahmanson-Murphy and Renouard. Sigonio's scholia have special title-pages and separate paging and signatures. Caroli Sigonii Scholia qvibvs T. Livii Patavini historiae ... : second foliated section, with special title-page "Caroli Sigonii Livianorvm Scholiorvm aliqvot defensiones adversvs Glareanvm et Robortellvm": paginated section, with special title-page. Rerum et vocmm apud T. Livium index copiosissimus: sigs. a-f⁸ at front in triple columns. Shoulder notes. Head- and tail-pieces. Woodcut initials. Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Handsomely rebacked retaining the original boards which are slightly rubbed to the extremities. Textblock largely clean with some light intermittent toning. A very well-preserved copy.
Notes: Third edition of the important complete text of Livy, edited by Carolus Sigonius (Carlo Sigone; ca. 1524-1584), together with his Scholia and interesting additions on the Roman chronology. Sigonius was professor of literature at Venice and produced a number of works for the Aldine press - he was then the most significant classical scholar in Italy and probably rivalled only by Scaliger elsewhere. The first edition has been issued from the Aldine press in 1555, the second in 1566; a fourth, less attractive edition followed in 1592. This third edition is distinguished from those which preceded it by some additions to the Scholia and an appendix in which the editor defends his views on the chronology of Livy against the attacks of two opponents (=part 3). Livy's work was originally composed of 142 books, of which only 35 are extant; these are Books 1-10 and 21-45 (with major lacunae in 41 and 43-45). A fragmentary palimpsest of the 91st book was discovered in the Vatican Library in 1772, containing about a thousand words, and several papyrus fragments of previously unknown material, much smaller, have been found in Egypt since 1900, most recently about forty words from Book 11, unearthed in the 1980s.To the present edition Aldus Jr. contributed the Testimonia in the preliminary pages and he is also unquestionably responsible for the large and strange device which replaces the simple anchor for which his father had shown so marked a preference. It consists of the arms granted to Paulus in 1571 by the Emperor Maximilian II. (in which the Aldine anchor occupies a subordinate place) surrounded by a border of heavy ornament with the addition: Ex privilegio Maximiliani II. Imp. Caes. Aug. When his father's death had made him the head of the press Aldus the younger continued for some years to employ the same device. For the fourth edition of 1592, much inferior to the present edition, and of interest only as showing the decline into which the Aldine press, and the Italian presses in general, had fallen at the end of the 16th century, he was only indirectly responsible. l Ahmanson-Murphy IIIb, 604 & 604a; Renouard p. 215, no. 10; Sandys, Hist. Class. scholarship II, p. 143; The Aldine press 848 & 848a.
