Crisantus Sold at Auction Prices

Catullus, Tibullus & Propertius. Catullus Propertius Tibullus, the rare first Giunta 8vo edition, [Florence], [Philip Giunta], 1503.

Giunta.- Catullus, Propertius & Tibullus. Catullus. Propertius. Tibullus., edited by Benedictus Ricardinus "Philologus", collation: a4 b-e8 f10 A-I8 aa-dd8 ee4, italic type, initial spaces with guide-letters, a4 and I8 blank, occasional early ink marginalia, water-stained at foot, closely trimmed at head, just touching some headlines, later vellum, lightly soiled, 8vo (147 x 95mm.), [Florence], [Filippo Giunta I], 1503. ⁂ The exceedingly rare first Giunta octavo edition, which Brunet calls 'plus rare que celle d'Alde'. This the issue with 'Augustas' in the colophon. It is essentially a copy of the 1502 Aldine edition, which was pirated by Trot in Lyons in the same year. This is the first of Giunta's octavo printings of the classics, which prompted Aldus to fight ferociously for a decade to protect his publications. Eventually, on 28th November, 1513, the newly elected Pope Leo X granted him a privilege, signed by Pietro Bembo, who was at the time papal secretary. John Carter in his Taste and Technique in Book Collecting (1969), who was himself an avid collector of Catullus, noted the volume's rarity. Indeed, he uses this particular volume to define the basis of the concept of 'rarity' in the world of book collecting. Provenance: Heinrich Ludwig Ziegler Stolbergen (ink signatures to endpapers, one dated 1805). Literature: Not in Adams; Renouard, Alde, XXXIV: 4; EDIT 16 CNCE 10357; Petta, The Giunti of Florence, 2013, pp.16-17.