Plutarchus, Vitae comparatae, Lyon, 1566, Roman polychrome binding by Marcantonio Guillery with Giustiniani arms

PLUTARCHUS. Vitae comparatae illustrium virorum Graecorum et Romanorum, ita digestae et in tomos tres dispertitae, ut temporum ordo seriesque constet. Lyon: Antoine Gryphe, 1566

FIRST EDITION OF A NEW TRANSLATION OF PLUTARCH'S LIVES IN AN ATTRACTIVE ROMAN POLYCHROME BINDING FOR A MEMBER OF THE GIUSTINIANI FAMILY.

This edition of the Lives was translated by Hermann Cruser (Crüser, Cruyser; 1510–1575), a doctor and jurist from Campen in the Netherlands, who had studied in Paris with Guillaume Budé, attended the court of François I as envoy of the Duke of Guelders (1536–1543), afterwards undertook diplomatic missions for Herzog Wilhelm von Jülich-Cleve-Berg, and was moved to translate Plutarch by the premature death of a daughter.

This volume was likely bound for a member of the Genoese branch of the Giustiniani family, given that their arms are on both covers. The family had been the last Genoese rulers of the Aegean island of Chios, a family possession for two centuries until 1566. Among their ranks are a series of notable bishops, cardinals, historians and antiquarians.

This book was later in the collection of Baron Horace de Landau (1824-1903), who at an early age entered the Paris house of the Rothschilds. He became their representative with the government of the newly created Kingdom of Italy in the 1860s. In 1872, he devoted himself to the formation of a great library and collection of works of art, purchasing a large villa on one of the hills outside Florence. He lived there for thirty years, expanding his collections by attending important sales across Europe and purchasing some great libraries en bloc. He bequeathed all his property to Madame Hugo Finaly, his niece, who made many valuable additions to the library. It was sold in these rooms following the death of her son, but this volume is not traced in the sale catalogues. For another lot in the present sale which also belonged to Baron Horace de Landau, see lot 1755 (Luis de Granada).