N.Gruchii - De Comitiis Romanorum - 1559

To the most learned men, Nicolas Gruchius of Rouen, De Comitiis Romanorum Libri Tres. His accessit rerum et verborum in his memorabilium copiosissima et accuratissima diligentia conquisitus index. Venice, printed by Franciscus Bindon, 1559.

Venetian edition (second, after the Paris first edition of 1555 at Vascosan) of this important humanistic treatise on the Roman assemblies, the work of 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 masters of Michel de Montaigne, who explicitly cites him in the Essais (I, 26) precisely for this work.

The volume, in three books, constitutes one of the earliest 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 trend dedicated to Roman institutions and was the subject of debate with Carlo Sigonio. Completed with a rich and accurate index of things and memorable words.

Format: smalloctavo (about 15 × 9 cm); 272, (56) pages. Contemporary or slightly later limp parchment binding, spine with handwritten title “Nicol. Gruchi. 15.” and a device. Exemplar complete, with a frontispiece ornamented by a typographic mark (an eye within a vegetal crown with serpent and hand), ornate initial capitals and headpieces.

Provenance: handwritten ownership signature ‘Francisci Antonij Coriolani Neritonensis’ (Francesco Antonio Coriolano from Nardò/Neretum).

A work of distinction in sixteenth-century historiography and antiquarianism, 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 princeps) and sought after both by collectors of Italian sixteenths and by scholars of constitutional history and juridical-political humanism.

The exemplar presents the typical charm of period parchment bindings and a documented Italian provenance dating to the seventeenth century.