Terenzio - Cicerone - Le Commedie - L'Epistole a' Familiari - 1753-1846

LOT OF TWO RARE VOLUMES OF LATIN CLASSICS IN ITALIAN TRANSLATION (XVIII-XIX CENTURIES)

1. Publio Terenzio Afro
The Comedies of Publio Terenzio. An anonymous translation published by the Aldi, or newly corrected and footnoted. Florence, Typography of Pietro Fraticelli, 1846.

2 volumes in 1 (Volume I and Volume II), octavo format (mm 145 × 85 at binding). Pages: XLII, 219; about 200. Contemporary half-brown leather binding with green cloth boards, smooth spine with rich gilt decorations and title in gold “TERENZIO. – COMMEDIE”.

Complete edition of the six surviving comedies of Terence (Andria, The Eunuch, The Self-Tormentor, The Two Brothers, The Mother-In-Law, The Formion) in the famous anonymous translation already published by the Aldi and here revised, corrected.
The volume includes:
• Publisher’s Notice
• Dissertation on Publio Terenzio
• Full text of the six comedies with titles, prologues and footnotes.

Terence (c. 190-159 BC) is the greatest exponent of Latin comedy inspired by Menander and the first Latin author to bring on stage the concept of humanitas. This Florence edition of 1846, printed by Pietro Fraticelli (noted printer and Dantean commentator), reissues a refined ancient translation with great linguistic and philological value, rare on the antiquarian market especially complete and in period binding.

Solid binding; slight signs of wear at the joints; the interiors in general good condition, with normal age browning.

2. Marcus Tullius Cicero
The Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero to his Friends. Rendered into Tuscan vernacular in accordance with the Latin text, and illustrated with Notes by Alessandro M. Bandiera of the Servi di Maria Sanese… Volume Two. Venice, near Tommaso Bettinelli, (1753).

Octavo format (mm 185 × 120). Pages: 637 + [3]. Contemporary parchment binding, with manuscript titles on the spine.

Second volume of the prestigious bilingual edition (Latin-Italian) of Cicero’s Epistulae ad Familiares, edited by the Siena Servite Alessandro Maria Bandiera (Greek professor). The volume includes Books IX-XVI of the familiar letters, with Latin text facing the Tuscan translation and rich philological and historical notes. The letters, written between 63 and 43 BC, constitute one of the most valuable sources on the crisis of the Roman Republic and on Cicero’s personality.

Bandiera’s edition (first complete edition 1753) is among the most appreciated of the eighteenth century for the quality of the translation and the apparatus of notes.

There is a tear to the page of Book X and to the back of the binding; browning and damp stains scattered (as in the photos); binding loosened but still functional. Internals legible and complete.

Two pieces of solid classical tradition, interesting both for literary content and for Italian typographic history (Fraticelli in Florence and Bettinelli in Venice). Ideal for collectors of Latin classics in translation and seventeenth-eighteenth-century editions.