Plinio il Giovane - Epistolarum - 1599

PLINY, TRAIANUS, AND THE SHADOW OF CAESIUS: A RELIC OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS
Fascinating and authentic sixteenth-century edition of Pliny the Younger's Epistles, enriched by the famous philological notes of Isaac Casaubon, one of the greatest humanists and textual critics of early modern Europe. The compact, intensely lived volume preserves an extraordinary material aura: an old binding in full vellum, worn from use and time, with frayed margins, worn pages and an impressive patina that renders the book as a tangible object of daily study, travel, and survival. The presence of the Panegyrici, the letters between Pliny and Trajan, and Claudian’s texts makes the work a small compendium of Latin imperial rhetoric, read and annotated in the height of European Protestant erudition. An ostensibly humble volume but of very strong historical and bibliographical charm, almost a philological relic from the age of confessional wars and the great humanist workshops.
MARKET VALUE
Sixteenth-century editions of Pliny the Younger with Casaubon’s notes maintain a stable market among collectors of classical philology and humanist books. Similar copies, complete but showing clear signs of use, generally range from 400 to 600 euros. Truly authentic copies, with non-refaced contemporaneous vellum and strong material character, are today more sought after than copies that have been excessively restored.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full vellum binding over raised cords, worn, with deformities, losses and tears to the boards, spine worn, visible stitching, restoration with old paper to the front board, partially torn. Typographic title-page with an editorial woodcut device, lower margin tear with minimal loss of print; text in roman and italic with running heads, woodcut initials and marginal notes impressed. Pages with some browning and physiological foxing, halos, creases, frayed margins. In old books with a multigenerational history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. 414; (2); 448; 28.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
C. Plinii Caec. Sec. Epist. Lib. IX.
S.L. 1599.
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Epistles of Pliny the Younger constitute one of the most extraordinary testimonies of Roman imperial society of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.: politics, aristocratic friendship, legal practice, provincial administration, and the construction of personal memory intertwine in elegant, calibrated prose that became the ultimate model for European humanism. The famous correspondence with Trajan is a fundamental document on the administration of the Empire and on the first official perception of Christians by the Roman authority. This edition gains additional importance for the presence of Isaac Casaubon’s notes, a central figure of Protestant philology between the Cinque and Seicento. Casaubon applied to classical texts a rigorous, almost “scientific” comparative method, based on systematic manuscript comparison and linguistic analysis. His annotations on Pliny represent one of the high points of pre-Enlightenment textual criticism. The addition of the Latin Panegyrici and Claudian’s texts transforms the volume into a repertoire of late Latin imperial rhetoric: celebration of power, political propaganda, construction of the emperor’s public image, and the ideal continuity of Roman authority. The book thus becomes not merely a classroom classic, but a true laboratory of European political memory.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, known as Pliny the Younger, was born around 61 A.D. and probably died around 113 A.D. A lawyer, senator, governor of Bithynia under Trajan, and refined literary figure, he was the nephew of Pliny the Elder. His Epistulae represent one of the most valuable sources on cultural and political life in the Flavian-Trajanic era. His prose, clear and elegant, profoundly influenced Renaissance and modern epistolary writing.

BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC CASAUBON
Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614), French philologist and humanist of Huguenot origin, was among the greatest European scholars of his time. Active in Geneva, Paris, and London, he collaborated with rulers and Protestant academic circles and developed a critical methodology that transformed classical studies. His annotated editions of Athenaeus, Persius, Suetonius, and Pliny became models of philological rigor for all of 17th-century Europe.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The editions of Pliny with Casaubon enjoyed wide diffusion in the European scholarly world from the late 16th to the 17th century, especially in Protestant university contexts in the French-speaking, Swiss, and German areas. The small formats, easily portable and intended for continuous study, were frequently used until they wore out, a circumstance that today makes copies remaining in wholly original, unrestored condition relatively rare. The highly lived-in appearance of this exemplar precisely attests to that long history of daily reading and consultation that constitutes one of the most fascinating elements of its material authenticity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Adams, P-1570 / P-1572 (editions related to Pliny with Casaubon).
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, IV, col. 706-709.
Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, V, p. 325.
Renouard, Annales de l’imprimerie des Estienne, passim.
Moss, Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought, Oxford, 1996.
Reynolds & Wilson, Scribes and Scholars, Oxford University Press.
Cataloghi ICCU / OPAC SBN: sixteenth- and seventeenth-century editions of Pliny with Casaubon apparatus.
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, records related to Casaubon-edition of Pliny.
WorldCat, European editions of Pliny the Younger with Panegyrici and philological notes."