Publisher: Venice: Giovanni de’ Picchi & Fratelli, 1578.
Edition: Venetian vernacular edition, corrected and enlarged
Binding: Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript title “Platina” to spine, early shelf marks to cover; vellum darkened, wrinkled, and with losses at extremities; ties lacking. Thick folio.
Description: A monumental Venetian folio — the Renaissance’s great history of the papacy, presented here in Italian for a wider readership hungry for the secrets of Rome. Written by the humanist Bartolomeo Platina (1421–1481) at the command of Pope Sixtus IV, the Lives of the Popes was the first continuous biographical history of the papacy, tracing its leaders from St. Peter through to Gregory XIII.
Platina’s candor made this book famous: he wrote frankly of both saintly pontiffs and scandalous ones, blending reverence with biting criticism. Censured in his time but reprinted for centuries, Platina became the definitive papal historian of the Renaissance. This 1578 Venetian issue, translated into the Italian vernacular, brought his vivid accounts — tales of wars, councils, scandals, and miracles — to a lay audience well beyond the clergy.
Publisher’s note: Printed by Giovanni de’ Picchi & Fratelli, prominent Venetian printers of historical and theological works, whose imprints catered to the city’s thriving literate culture. Their vernacular editions opened learned works like Platina’s to a broad readership.
Binding: Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript spine title, early shelf notation. Binding darkened and worn, edges creased and wrinkled, but solidly intact.
Interior: Complete; strong impressions, woodcut vignette on title; occasional dampstains and foxing, but overall a robust survival of a working 16th-century papal chronicle.
A book with authority, presence, and intrigue — Platina’s Lives of the Popes is both the Renaissance’s official record of the papacy and a candid chronicle of its controversies. This 1578 Venetian vernacular edition, in its original binding, offers a rare chance to own a substantial witness to the politics and history of Rome.
Condition: Good (vellum binding worn, darkened, and wrinkled; ties lacking; text complete, with light foxing and dampstains; manuscript spine title and shelf marks).
Annotation: Venetian vernacular edition of Platina’s Lives of the Popes, 1578, enlarged to Gregory XIII; in contemporary vellum with manuscript spine title and early shelf marks.
Item #91
Price:
$500.00
