Vitae imperatorum, sive De vita illustrium virorum.Venice, Nicolaus Jenson, 8 March

EDITIO PRINCEPS - THE PEMBROKE COPY

4to (263 x 186mm). 53 (last blank) ff. (of 54, lacking first blank), roman type (1:115r), 32 lines (184 x 105mm), capital spaces.

Early 18th century English red morocco bound for Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, covers with gilt border of dentelles and fleurons at the corners, spine richly gilt in compartments, paper label at foot of spine, gilt edges (joints rubbed, preserved in a box).

Editio princeps. The Pembroke Copy of the first edition of the Roman historian and biographer Cornelius Nepos' Vitae, an early Jenson printing in his 'perfect' roman type.

"The Roman type employed by Jenson is the most beautiful ever cut and with him printing suddenly attained its perfection just five years after the introduction of that art into Italy. His books have served as an inspiration and a model to most of the fine presses established in England and elsewhere during the period of the revival of typography as an art, from the 1890's onwards." (The Italian Book 1465-1900, Catalogue of an exhibition, National Book League, 1953, no. 8).

Published, as usual, under the name of Aemilius Probus this surviving fragment of Nepos' work contains 25 lives in all, mostly of Greek generals such as Themistocles, Miltiades, Epaminondas and Pausanias, but also including Hannibal and Hamilcar.

The Earls of Pembroke were patrons of learning and the arts for several generations. However, the choicer and more important part of the library was acquired mainly by Thomas Herbert, eighth Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733). He held high office in various capacities - for example, Lord Privy Seal and First Lord of the Admiralty - and was associated in politics with two other famous bibliophiles, Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland. His son, Henry, the ninth Earl, though chiefly interested in architecture, also added to the library with works in that field and in numismatics.

The Pembroke library, "hardly contained anything but incunabula, selected with great judgement and an obvious desire to combine the earliest monuments of typography with the first editions of the classics" (De Ricci, English Collectors, (1930), pp. 40-41). De Ricci also notes (p. 33) that Thomas Herbert along with Robert Harley, Charles Spencer and William, second Duke of Devonshire, "are the first great collectors of early-printed books, not only in England but in Europe, for the first time in history, large sums of money were expended on the gathering of incunabula and, to the present day, we are still to a certain extent dependent on the admirable stores accumulated by these wealthy pioneers".

Provenance:

1. Unidentified 16th? century ink ownership inscription at foot of first page, rubbed out, a few marginal annotations in an early hand.

2. Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, with a Pembroke binding and shelf-mark "Kc.7.", and paper shelf-label at foot of spine with call no. "Gg 4o", sold at Sotheby's 25 June 1914, lot 72, £85 to Quaritch (pencil collation note by F.S. Ferguson dated 2 July 1914).

3. Charles Stephen Ascherson (1874-1945) with his printed label inside back-cover.

4. Edward Hilton Young, first Baron Kennet (1879-1960), politician and writer, with his armorial bookplate inside front cover, bought from Davis & Orioli 1941.

5. Private collection.

A single wormhole at top edge of upper margin for first few leaves, one or two leaves with very light marginal foxing otherwise an exceptionally clean, wide-margined copy.

ISTC ic00915000 (63 locations). BMC V, p. 167. H* 5733. GW M25944. IGI 3211. Bod-inc, C-460. Goff C-915..

Stock Code: 250372