An exceptional Saxon Princely-Bound 1596 Cicero. THE BOOK: Marcus Tullius Cicero — Opera Omnia. accesserunt D. Gothofredi notae Geneva: Guillaume de Laimarie, 1596. Quarto, c. 30 × 20 × 9 cm; text in two columns throughout; engraved architectural title border. Collation (complete): ¶⁴ A–N⁸ O⁴ P² : aa–zz⁸ Aa–Gg⁸ : a–v⁸ : Aa–Yy⁸ Zz⁴ : A–E⁸ (Index). Columns: 436 ; 958 ; 636 ; 714; Index [3] pp + 40 ff (83 pp). Binding: exceptionally preserved contemporary Princely Saxon electoral blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, five raised bands, early inked spine title. Central panels: on one board the imperial double-headed eagle with legend “DES HEILIGEN RÖMISCHEN KAISERS”; on the other the arms & titulature of the Elector of Saxony “VON GOTTES GNADEN AVGVSTVS HERTZOG ZV …”; multiple figural roll borders. Clasps lacking as usual. MOUSEION CURATOR NOTE: “An edition that taught early-modern Europe how to speak—Lambinus’s Cicero, newly instrumented by the jurist Gothofredus—wrapped in a binding that proclaimed power. Geneva gave the words; Saxony gave the majesty.” BOOK DESCRIPTION: Uncommon Laimarie issue in an original Saxon electoral binding — scarce in the trade. Printed in Calvin’s Geneva, this 1596 Laimarie issue of Cicero’s complete works stands at the intersection of philology, pedagogy, and law. Built upon Denis Lambinus’s celebrated recension, the edition adds the notes and synopses of the jurist Denis (Dionysius) Godefroy (Gothofredus). The title promises exactly what readers found useful: variae lectiones, synopses generales et speciales, and a comprehensive index designed for swift cross-reference—“Ciceronis loca præcipua & difficiliora… ad ius, leges, senatusconsulta & actiones pertinentes, explicata.” The typography is clean and rational: double columns with running column numbers, handsome headpieces, and an engraved “four authors” border on the title. PROVENANCE: Saxon electoral binding (court/chancellery workshop). The boards carry the diagnostic pair of large center panels: Imperial eagle with the legend “DES HEILIGEN RÖMISCHEN KAISERS.” Arms & titulature of the Saxon Elector “VON GOTTES GNADEN AVGVSTVS HERTZOG ZV [SACHSEN] …”. These plates were introduced under Kurfürst August (r. 1553–1586) and remained in use into the 1590s, precisely the horizon of this copy. Around the center panels run figural roll-borders with named compartments (Evangelists MATTH, MARC, LVCAS, IOHAN; DAVID with harp, etc.), a characteristic Saxon/German program. Early private owners. On the title page appear two neat, late-16th/early-17th-century signatures: “Petrus” and “Henricus Iulianus” (Latin Henricus Julianus). These are period academic hands—exactly the readership the edition CONDITION REPORT: Binding. Contemporary pigskin over bevelled wooden boards; five raised bands; inked spine title “CICERONI OPERA.” Tooling clear and attractive on both boards; the imperial legend reads crisply. A few tiny, pinholes to a board. Very well preserved, a striking princely binding. Leaves. Paper stout and clean; even printing in a dark roman. Title leaf with a triangular loss at the lower outer corner confined to blank margin; a couple of small pinholes at the foot; engraved border untouched. Privilege leaf with a light lower-margin tide mark; otherwise interiors fresh for age with generous margins. Occasional small signs of handling at edges, few tiny pinholes confined mainly to the margins in the last quarter of the book. Collation / completeness. Conforms to GLN 3856: four parts with columns 436 / 958 / 636 / 714; Index Rerum et Verborum complete on A–E⁸. Format in-4°. Overall: a Very Good– example—structurally sound, visually strong, and complete—in an authentic Saxon electoral binding that materially links Geneva humanism to the culture of a major Protestant court. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Lambinus supplied one of the sixteenth century’s most influential Ciceronian texts; Gothofredus (Denis Godefroy), a leading Reformed jurist, overlaid it with a practical apparatus oriented to forensic rhetoric and legal usage—hence the dual privileges to the Emperor and the Most Christian King. Iconography of the boards: The big center panels are not generic armorials but state emblems: the Empire’s eagle and the Saxon Elector’s titulature. The surrounding compartments—Evangelists and prophets (David with harp)—are typical Saxon/German roll-tool imagery and help confirm workshop tradition. The mise-en-page—double columns, synopses, running columns, and a massive general index—reflects reference-driven, selective reading practices (schools, colleges, law faculties) rather than linear literary consumption. It’s a design that made Cicero usable. MOUSEION CURATOR NOTE: “On these boards, scholarship and sovereignty meet. To open this book is to see how knowledge traveled—across confessions, across borders, and across the very hands that taught Europe to argue.” #ExclusiveCabinetofCuriosities