Description
HISTORIARUM AB INCLINATIONE ROMANORUM IMPERII DECADES. [and:] PIUS II: ABBREVIATIO SUPRA DECADES BLONDI. (AL COLOPHON:) IMPRESSUM VENETIIS: PER THOMAS ALEXANDRINUS, 1484
In-folio (mm 298×195). Leaves [250], with the first blank; [52]. Collation: a-g8 h10 i-u8 x10 A8 B12 C-I8; AA-DD8 EE FF10.
Empty initials with letter suggestions. Roman type (R 94) on 55 lines. Copy with wide but light dampstains at the initial pages, some more marginal at the end. Contemporary leather over wooden boards, with arabesque motifs tooled on covers, spine with manuscript title on paper; with defects. XVI C. ex-dono on title page, some glosses from the same hand throughout.
Comments:
Second edition of Flavio Biondo’s greatest work, the first to contain Pope II’s Abbreviatio.
Biondo, humanist historian, is regarded by many as the father of archeology. Trained as a notary he moved to Rome, appointed apostolic secretary to pope Eugene IV and three more pontifices after him. In a decadent Rome Biondo started matching up the descriptions in the works of Pliny and Livy with the arches, columns, and stones he found scattered around Rome. The result of the cataloguing ended up in De Roma instaurata (1444–46), in three volumes, a reconstruction of ancient Rome topography.
Diplomatic missions on behalf of the Papal State brought him to Venice and along with Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan and condottiere in war-torn Italy of mid XVI century. Based on the author’s extensive travels through Italy, the other great work, Italia illustrata (written between 1448 and 1458, first published in 1474) described the geography and history of 18 Italian provinces, analyzing the contemporary internal divisions between states, princedoms, Signorie and papal power in Italy.
The Historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii decades (written from 1439 to 1453, first published in 1483; “Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire”) is an exhaustive overview of both Europe and Christendom from the sack of Rome by the Goths in AD 410 to the rise of Italian cities and renewal of Italian dignity and glory up to 1442. The most reliable sources were consulted for this critical work, providing a definite chronological outline between ancient Rome and Biondo’s own time and influencing the later notion of the millennium long period of the Middle Ages.
