Gli Annali

In-4 of (16) ff., 301 ff., (1) f.
Brown morocco, silver fanfare decoration on covers with a cipher SLD, smooth spine decorated en suite, gilt and gauffered edges. Binding circa 1573.

220 x 155 mm.

Tacitus. The Annals of Cornelius Tacitus, Roman knight, on the deeds and wars of the Romans, both civil and foreign… Newly translated from Latin into Tuscan by Giorgio Dati, Florentine.
Venice, at the instance of the Giunti of Florence, 1563.

Very rare first edition of Tacitus’s Annals translated by Dati.

First edition of the vernacular by Giorgio Dati (1506–1557) of the Annals.

Dati’s version sparked the controversy of Henri Estienne, who, in the Project du libre intituté de la précellence du langage francois (1579), argued the impossibility for the Italian language to attain the conciseness of Latin.

“First edition, very accurate and beautiful in typography” (Camerini, Annali, 342).

Alongside the predominant figures of the emperors, Tacitus shows us the agitation of a crowd of collaborators and enemies, absorbed by their passions, guided by outstanding virtues or horrible vices towards equally lamentable ends. Making no distinction between the former and the latter, the divinity—who for Tacitus reveals its presence throughout the history of Rome—strikes, in its wrath, both the good and the bad alike, while pursuing its obscure aims. Although the historian proceeds in the manner of an annalist and recounts, year by year, the internal and external circumstances, his insistence on considering the psychological motives leads him to dwell mainly on events in the capital and at Court; thus, the history of the province remains in the background. These qualities and defects, precisely because they are bound up with this particular vision of history unique to Tacitus, give the Annals—even more than the Histories—a unique place in ancient historiography, and confer on their author not only the reputation of a great artist (the style preserves and intensifies the features revealed by the Histories), but also that of a profound expert on the human soul.

Ruled copy.

Superb Parisian fanfare binding with silver decoration, by the “plumed heart” workshop.

In the final quarter of the 16th century, decorative bindings represented little more than a limited field of activity for a few binders. While in the mid-16th century they could form a strong core of a library, around which, as at Fontainebleau, the whole collection could be organized, they had now become only isolated pieces, without definable status, within the closed system of the collection. They appear more as traces of the owner's preference for certain texts or cherished copies, or, in the case of presentation copies, as evidence of some emotional relationship or, more often, social subordination between giver and recipient.

According to a pencil note, the copy was purchased by the Count of Lauraguais. Old inventory numbers (?) at the bottom of the title. Acquired at the Beraldi sale (1934, I, no. 36), described as follows:
“Superb binding from the time of Charles IX, executed by one of the Ève [binders], with rich compartments entirely covering the spine and boards, stamped in silver, darkened with age; at the center of the boards, a cipher formed of the entwined letters S.L.D. (Small stains on the binding and leaf edges).”