Cicerone - [Post Incunable] Verrinae - 1515

CORRUPTION AND POWER: THE VERRE DOSSIER, CICERO AGAINST THE PREDATOR OF SICILY
One of the most thunderous cases of abuse of power in antiquity, transformed by Marcus Tullius Cicero into a universal indictment of institutional corruption. Verres, governor of Sicily, is unmasked as a systematic predator of a province: connivance, fiscal extortion, looting of works of art, violations of Roman law, and private use of public jurisdiction.
The dossier’s relevance is evident: the conflict between public interest and personal enrichment, the asymmetry between rulers and the governed, the difficulty of prosecuting the powerful are themes that go beyond the Roman context and speak directly to the present. The presence of the Aldine anchor mark and the compact structure of the volume confirm its intended educated and specialist audience, while the materially vivid exemplar testimonies a real and prolonged use in study.
This rare Florentine edition of 1515 of the Verrinae of Marcus Tullius Cicero bears witness to the constant fortune of Cicero’s judicial oratory in the early Italian Renaissance. Printed by Filippo Giunti, a central figure of Florentine typography, the work returns one of the most famous cycles of oratory in antiquity: the invectives pronounced against Gaio Verre, an eternal paradigm of political corruption and abuse of power. In a handy yet scholarly format, intended for study and active reading, this volume reflects the humanistic use of Cicero as a linguistic, moral, and civic model, in a context where the classical word returns to being a tool of justice and the formation of the ruling elite.
MARKET VALUE
The sixteenth-century editions of Cicero’s oratorical works, especially those printed in Florence by the Giunti, maintain a steady market demand in the antiquarian market, ranging between 2,000 and 4,000 Euros. Complete exemplars, in antique binding and with generally sound conditions, consistently fall within this range, with possible increases for copies that are particularly fresh or have documented provenance.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Full leather binding, spine with raised bands and gold tooling. Paper with some browning and perishing. Printer’s mark at the end. Presence of brown ink marks in the text, probably from ancient reading. In ancient books, with a multi-century history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 430; 2nn; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
M. Tullii Ciceronis Verrinae.
Florentiae, apud Philippi Iuntae, 1515.
Marco Tullio Cicerone.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Verrinae represent one of the peaks of Latin judicial oratory: a systematic and relentless attack against Governor Verre, accused of plunder, extortion, and sacrilegious violations in Sicily. Beyond the specific case, Cicero builds a universal model of denouncing misgovernment, grounded in a rhetoric that unites moral indignation, juridical precision, and narrative force. In the Renaissance, these orations were read not only as stylistic exercises but as politically current texts capable of instructing magistrates, jurists, and leaders. Florence’s Giunti printing press fits fully into this climate, presenting Cicero as a living and necessary author.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in Arpinum in 106 BCE and died in 43 BCE. He was an orator, philosopher, jurist, and statesman, a central figure of the late Roman Republic. Considered the ultimate model of Latin prose, Cicero exerted decisive influence on rhetoric, moral philosophy, and Western political theory, becoming a cornerstone author of medieval and Renaissance educational programs.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed in Florence in 1515 by Filippo Giunti, the edition sits in the full maturity of the Giuntine workshop, renowned for typographic quality and the systematic diffusion of Latin classics. The Verrinae underwent numerous reprints in the sixteenth century, but the Italian editions from the early decades are today less common than the Franco-German ones. The presence of the colophon on paper A7v confirms the completeness of the exemplar.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
EDIT16, CNCE: to be verified.
Renouard, A. A., Annales des Junte, Paris, 1834, pp. 98–101.
Reynolds, L. D., Texts and Transmission, Oxford, 1983, pp. 107–112 (under Cicero).