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The most influential Latin edition printed outside Italy

PLUTARCH.
Vitae Plutarchi Cheronei post Pyladen Brixianum longe diligentius repositae: cum moiore verioreque indice: necnon cum Aemilii Probi vitis.

With title-page printed in red and black within splendid woodcut border of four blocks, with coat of arms left blank in the block at the bottom; Jodocus Badius Ascensus's printer's device between title and imprint; many woodcut initials in the text.

With title-page printed in red and black within splendid woodcut border of four blocks, with coat of arms left blank in the block at the bottom; Jodocus Badius Ascensus's printer's device between title and imprint; many woodcut initials in the text.

With title-page printed in red and black within splendid woodcut border of four blocks, with coat of arms left blank in the block at the bottom; Jodocus Badius Ascensus's printer's device between title and imprint; many woodcut initials in the text.

With title-page printed in red and black within splendid woodcut border of four blocks, with coat of arms left blank in the block at the bottom; Jodocus Badius Ascensus's printer's device between title and imprint; many woodcut initials in the text.



[Paris], Josse Badius Ascensius and Jean Petit, (colophon: 13 November, 1514; preface dated Decemb Folio. 16th-century blind-stamped half pigskin over the original wooden boards, with two clasps. With title-page printed in red and black within splendid woodcut border of four blocks, with coat of arms left blank in the block at the bottom; Jodocus Badius Ascensus's printer's device between title and imprint; many woodcut initials in the text. [22], 393, [1 blank] ll.

First Latin edition of Plutarch's Vitae paralellae (Lives) by the famous Parisian printer and publisher Josse Badius Ascensius. After the Strassbourg edition of 1470-71 this is the first and by far the most influential Latin edition outside Italy, printed three years before the Greek editio princeps. Much better, as is stated on the title, than the edition by Pylades Brixianus (=Johannes Franciscus Buccardus, † 1506), printed in Brescia in 1499.
Plutarch's popularity and importance rest primarily on these 'Parallel Lives' - composed ca. 100-120 AD -, which were designed to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. The lives are presented in pairs, for example: Theseus-Romulus, Demosthenes-Cicero, Alexander the Great-Caesar, etc. There are 22 pairs, and four single biographies of Aratus, Artaxerxes, and the Roman emperors Otho and Galba. By exhibiting noble deeds and characters, they were also to provide patterns of good behaviour and moral and ethical values.
Plutarch's later influence has been profound, but his reputation faded in the Latin West during the Middle Ages, only to be re-introduced in Renaissance Italy by Byzantine scholars in the 15th century. Italian humanists had already translated Plutarch's work into Latin before 1509 when the Greek editio princeps of the Moralia, the other great work by Plutarch, was published by Aldus Manutius at Venice. The Greek editio princeps of the Vitae appeared at Florence in 1517 and they were printed in 1519 by Aldus.
Especially through its translations into Latin - of which this 1514 edition by Badius is undoubtedly the most important - as well as in the vernacular - the famous French translation by Jacques Amyot in 1559, and the English by Sir Thomas North in 1579 - the Lives could gain an enormous impact on Western civilisation by providing later biographers and literary authors an outstanding model. It is very well known for example that authors like Montagne, Corneille, Racine, Rousseau and Schiller heavily drew on the Lives. This was certainly also the case with Shakespeare for whom the Lives were the main source for his Roman history plays. Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Anthony and Cleopatra and Timon of Athens, all come, often literally, from the Lives. They have functioned also to a great extent as a model for later rulers such as the French king Henry IV, Frederik II of Prussia and even Napoleon.

Some contemporary 16th century scholarly annotations, especially on leaves 120-126v: the 'Live of Cato'. Very good copy, with ownership's entry of Albertus Truchsess (?) in ink on inside front cover, and the bookplate of Ludovicus Romanus IVD on verso of first flyleaf.
Renouard, Josse Badius Ascensius, III, pp. 175-178; not in Adams; Mortimer; STC French.

Related Subjects: 16th Century  Classical Antiquity 

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