Pseudo cicerone e Cicerone - Rhetoricorum ad Herennium - 1568

Rhetorics to Heremnius in four books and M. T. Cicero’s De inventione in two books, Venice, at Georgio de Caballis, MDLXVIII, pp. 273 (237) + index n.n. (273 v. and 3 cc.). cm. 16x10.

The copy shows a stratification of ownership transfers: an ancient possession note, erased and illegible, on the title page; on the last page the contemporary signature is clearly legible, though partly erased by a later hand: “Hieronimi Battistini Perutii” (Girolamo Battistini of Perugia), which locates the study and use of the volume in the Umbrian cultivated milieu between the late 16th and early 17th century. The volume later passed in a subsequent period into the collection of a new owner, who placed his own signature on the front free endpaper: “C. A. Cambiotti.” This most likely refers to the learned Cambiotti Counts family (active between Perugia and Gubbio).

Preserved in its original simple-cardboard binding, worn, lacking the final cover, with the back cover exposed, revealing the four original sewing cords and fragments of reused paper used by a 16th-century binder. Text perfectly legible and genuine.

There is noted a marked fragility of the paper at the outer margins, which presents as weak and fragile to the touch due to old traces of humidity (resolved) and partial loss of the original glue. Time browning and light damp stains are present but not disturbing.

On the naked back, at the position of the ancient reinforcing papers between the cords, the old contemporaneous manuscript title “Cicero de invent” survives, and a yellowed card fragment from an old private library bearing the inventory number “39.”