N.Gruchii - De Comitiis Romanorum - 1559

To the most learned men, Nicolai Gruchii Rotomagensis, De Comitiis Romanorum Libri Tres. Here is added an index of the matters and words, collected with the most abundant and meticulous diligence.
Venetiis, apud Franciscum Bindonum, 1559.

Venetian edition (second, after the Paris first edition of 1555 at Vascosan) of this important humanist treatise on the Roman assemblies, by the French philologist and scholar Nicolas de Grouchy (Nicolaus Gruchius, Rouen ca. 1510 – La Rochelle 1572).

Grouchy, professor at the Collège de Guyenne, was among the teachers of Michel de Montaigne, who explicitly cites him in the Essays (I, 26) precisely for this work.

The volume, in three books, constitutes one of the first and most systematic Renaissance studies of the popular assemblies of the Roman Republic (comitia centuriata, tributa and curiata): organization, voting procedures, election of magistrates, relations between the people, the Senate, and power. It fits into the flourishing sixteenth-century antiquarian tradition devoted to Roman institutions and was the subject of debate with Carlo Sigonio. Completed by a rich and accurate index of memorable things and words.

Format: small octavo (about 15 × 9 cm); 272, (56) pp. Contemporary or near-contemporary parchment binding, with a worn spine bearing the handwritten title “Nicol. Gruchi. 15.” and a device.

The exemplar is complete, with a title page ornamented by a typographic mark (an eye within a crown of foliage with a serpent and hand), decorative initials and headpieces.

Provenance: manuscript ownership signature “Francisci Antonij Coriolani Neritonensis” (Francesco Antonio Coriolano from Nardò/Neretum).

A work of note in sixteenth-century historiography and antiquarian studies, still consulted for the study of Roman republican institutions. The Venetian edition of 1559 is rather rare on the antiquarian market (less common than the Paris first edition) and sought after by both collectors of Italian sixteenths and scholars of constitutional history and of juridical-political humanism.

The copy possesses the characteristic charm of period parchment bindings and a documented seventeenth-century Italian provenance.