Suetonius, XII Caesares, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1521, German pigskin over beveled wooden boards

Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius. In hoc volumine haec continentur. C. Suetonij Tranquilli XII Caesares. Sexti Aurelij Victoris à d. Caesare Augusto usque ad Theodosium excerpta. Eutropij De gestis Romanorum Lib. X. Pauli Diaconi libri VIII ad Eutropij historiam additi. Index rerum memorabilium per singulos Tranquilli Caesares ab Ioanne Baptista Egnatio Veneto compositus. Annotationes etiam Erasmi in Suetonium, Eutropium, & Paulum Diaconum per literarum ordinem. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1521

Fine paper — a wide margined copy with extensive early annotations and the near contemporary bookplate of Johannes Ratzenberger (d. 1570).

Second Aldine edition, with Erasmus's annotated index added.

8vo (155 x 98 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-G⁸ H⁴ a-z⁸ aa-rr⁸: 380 leaves (D8 a blank). Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and verso of last leaf. (Intermittent spotting, dampstaining and toning, small wormhole to title- page, lower edge of last leaf a little frayed.)

binding: German pigskin over beveled wooden boards (166 x 105 mm), blind roll around sides with figures above legends (Paulus-"Apparuit [Benignitas]"; David-"De Fructu [Ventris Tui]"; Salvator-"Data Est Mi[hi Omnis Po.]"; Johannes-"Ecce Agnus [Dei]"), three rolls in central panel, above and below which are "H.HF.D.I". and "1554", catchplates for two clasps missing. (A little cocked, small areas of worming to spine, spine cracked, corners bumped with some exposure, endleaves removed.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, supralibros, initials "H.HF.D.I." and date 1554 on upper cover — Johannes Ratzenberger (d. 1570), Hofmedicus to the Duke of Saxony-Weimar. Multiple versions of his ex libris exist, featuring a woodcut armorial with varying inscriptions, including present "Ex Bibliotheca Ioannis Racebergii Medici". See Ilse O'Dell, Deutsche und Österreichische Exlibris 1500–1599 im Britischen Museum (London, 2003), no. 312; Kuno Waehmer, Bücherzeichen deutscher Ärzte (Leipzig, 1919), p. 125 — unidentified owner, early inscription "Joh. Hertzogius" on title-page (crossed out) — unidentified owner, inscription "Maria Hertzogia Wedlia (?) das Blet", to pastedown — unidentified owner, early marginalia offering variant readings and explanations up through the life of Nero — unidentified owner, early oval stamp on verso of title-page (obliterated). acquisition: Purchased from Thomas Joyce, Chicago, 1993. references: UCLA 201; Renouard 91/7; Edit16 37658; USTC 857772