Cicerone / Manuzio - Orationes - 1552

CICERONE CORRETTO DA MANUZIO: THE ROMAN ORATORY REVIVED IN THE VENEZIA AULICA OF 1552
This important Venetian edition of 1552 gathers in a single monumental volume the speeches of Marcus Tullius Cicero, revised according to the rigorous philological work of the Aldine school and enriched by the commentaries of Asconio Pedianus and the corrections of Paolo Manuzio. The book belongs to the heart of the great Venetian humanist era, when the Manuzio workshop transformed the Latin classics into central instruments of political formation, rhetoric, and moral in European modernity. The imposing textual apparatus, the broad final index, and the sober yet elegant typographic presentation make this volume not only a school text but a true editorial monument of the Renaissance. The copy also preserves a strong material presence: generous margins, clear type, an old binding restored, and concrete traces of centuries-long study and consultation.
MARKET VALUE
Aldine and post-Aldine editions of Cicero’s works edited by Paolo Manuzio are consistently sought after in the international antiquarian market, especially when complete, in folio, and with ample margins. Similar copies of this collection of Orationes can generally range between 700 and 1,500 euros depending on completeness, condition, binding, and paper quality. Genuine, untrimmed copies with strong typographic presence are today increasingly scarce on the market.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Old binding restored in parchment with renewed boards. Frontispiece with an elegant Aldine typographic device depicting an anchor and a dolphin within a rich woodcut ornamental frame. Text in roman type arranged in two columns. Leaves with some browning and scattered stains. Ancient handwritten note present on the frontispiece. In old books with a multigenerational history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 1406; 28; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
In omnes M. Tullii Ciceronis orationes doctissimorum virorum lucubrationes.
Venetiis, 1552.
Marco Tullio Cicerone.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
In the height of the Venetian Renaissance, Cicero represented the absolute model of civil eloquence and the shaping of the political man. This grand edition of 1552 directly continues the editorial tradition inaugurated by Aldo Manuzio and continued by his son Paolo, one of the most refined philologists of the sixteenth century. Paolo Manuzio devoted much of his life to the Cicero project, correcting texts, comparing manuscripts, and reconstructing the linguistic purity of Latin according to the principles of mature humanism. The presence of Asconio Pedianus’s commentaries further amplifies the value of the work: the Renaissance reader receives not only Cicero’s text, but also its historical, rhetorical, and legal apparatus, indispensable for understanding the context of Roman political speeches. This volume thus testifies not only to the transmission of the classics but to the very construction of European modern culture, founded on the authority of the word, civil persuasion, and the philological recovery of antiquity. The famous anchor and dolphin mark, symbol of the Aldine tradition, remains one of the most recognizable emblems in the history of printing: a balance between speed and prudence, knowledge and discipline, study and universal diffusion of the book.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Marco Tullio Cicerone was born in Arpinum in 106 BCE and died in 43 BCE. He was an advocate, politician, philosopher, and the greatest orator of the Roman Republic. His speeches, philosophical works, and epistolary writings profoundly influenced Western culture, from the Renaissance to the modern era. In the Renaissance Cicero became the supreme model of Latin language and political eloquence, to the point that the European humanistic school largely built itself around studying his works.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Aldine workshop of Venice revolutionized the history of the European book between the 15th and 16th centuries. After Aldus Manutius, Paolo Manuzio continued the printing activity with particular attention to the Latin classics and especially to Cicero, publishing numerous corrected and annotated editions. The large folio Cicero collections printed in Venice in the forties and fifties of the 16th century became essential tools for universities, jurists, diplomats, and statesmen throughout Europe.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
EDIT16, census of the Venetian Manuzian editions of Cicero’s Orationes of 1552.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, copies cataloged in Italian libraries.
WorldCat, copies held in European and American libraries.
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, C-1952 and variants.
Renouard, Annales de l’Imprimerie des Alde.
Ahmanson-Murphy, Catalogue of Venetian Printing.
Treccani, entry “Paolo Manuzio”.
DBI – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, entry “Manuzio, Paolo”.