Vico, Augustarum imagines, Venice, [Paolo Manuzio], 1558, modern green morocco

Vico, Enea. Augustarum imagines aereis formis expressae: vitae quoque earundem breuiter enarratae, signorum etiam, quae in posteriori parte numismatum efficta sunt, ratio explicata: ab Aenea Vico Parmense. Venice: [Paolo Manuzio], 1558

First edition, fine paper copy of Conti's Latin translation, dedicated to Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg. The Italian original edition appeared in the previous year. The work contains biographical sketches of the female relations of the Roman emperors, from the grandmother of Julius Caesar to the wife of Domitian. The Morgan Library & Museum copy in a spectacular contemporary Genevan binding is only slightly taller (Needham, Twelve centuries, p. 272, “may be a large-paper copy”).

4to (242 x 171 mm). Roman type, 37 lines plus headline. collation: A⁴ b⁴ [c]² A-Z⁴ AA⁴ *²: 108 leaves. Engraved title-page, woodcut initials, full-page engraved illustrations, engravings on G3v, G4v with cancellans pasted over, central roundels on A2v and C4v cancelled with blank overslips. (Minor fingersoiling, faint marginal foxing, minute marginal wormhole from V4 to end)

binding: Modern green morocco (250 x 177 mm), gilt lettering on spine. (Corners bumped, spine a trifle sunned, later endleaves.)

acquisition: Purchased from Bottega Apulja, Bari, 1972. references: UCLA 537; Renouard 176/18; Edit16 48277; USTC 863206; Mortimer, Italian, 533