ARNOBIUS Disputationum adversus gentes libri octo. Nunc primum in lucem editi. Rome, Francesco Priscianese, 1542
Folio: Roman type. 17th century sprinkled calf, spine gilt in compartments, Chatsworth book plate. An excellent copy.
First edition. One of the very few books from the press of the Florentine humanist and scholar who joined the circle around Cardinal Ridolfi in Rome. An ambitious project had been conceived by Cardinal Cervini to publish the entire corpus of the early Church Fathers: Blado was to print the Greek authors and Priscianese was chosen to publish the Latin texts. The manuscript from which Fausto Sabeo prepared the edition was corrupt, and the little time he could spare from his duties as Librarian to the Vatican meant that Priscianese was left with a mammoth task of correction.
£600
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