Beschreibung:

BRUNUS ARETINUS, Leonardus (1369-1444). Historiae Florentini populi , in Italian. Translated from Latin by Donatus Acciaiuolus. Venice: Jacobus Rubeus, 12 February 1476. Median 2 o (321 x 221 mm). Collation: a-k 1 0 kk 6 l-p 1 0 q 1 2 r-x 1 0 (a1 blank, a2r translator's dedicatory letter to the Signoria and Gonfaloniere of Florence, a3v text, x10r colophon, x10v blank). 218 leaves. 41 lines. Type: 1:113(110)R. Two pinholes visible. (Initial blank rehinged, marginal repairs to first 4 leaves, lower blank corner of r6 torn away, light marginal foxing.) HC 1562*; BMC V, 215 (IB. 20085-88); GW 5612; Harvard/Walsh 1650-51; IGI 2202; Pr 4242; Goff B-1247. [ Bound with :] POGGIUS Florentinus (1380-1459). Historia Florentina , in Italian. Translated from Latin by Jacobus Poggius. Venice: Jacobus Rubeus, 8 March 1476. Median 2 o. Collation: a 1 0 b-c 8 (a1r translator's dedicatory letter to Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, a3r books I-II, c8v blank); d-h 1 0 i-k 6 (d1r books III-VI); l-m 1 0 n 8 (l1r book VII, n7r colophon, n7v-n8 blank). 115 leaves (of 116, without final blank). 41 lines. Type: 1:113(110)R. Two pinholes visible. (Mostly marginal foxing, gutter repairs to n1, dampstaining to last few leaves causing small marginal tear in final leaf.) 19th-century vellum-backed boards, manuscript title on backstrip, edges blue-stained (joints split at top). Provenance : a few early marginalia -- unidentified 19th-century Italian owner (calligraphic titles inscribed on first blank and on spine of binding, foliation [deleted in the second work], marginal notes and headings). HC(+Add) 13172*; BMC V, 215 (IB. 20086 and 20089); Harvard/Walsh 1652-54; IGI 7940; Pr 4243; Goff P-873. FIRST EDITIONS. Bruni's history, covering the Roman period to 1404, was the first history of Florence based on a critical examination of the source material. In it he portrayed Florence as the heir of the free city-states of ancient Etruria and of the Roman Republic, and honored the Florentine people for perpetuating a tradition of republican struggle against tyranny. Acciaiuoli's translation, commissioned by the Signoria, eclipsed for two centuries Bruni's fluent Latin text, which remained unpublished until 1610. No doubt as intended by the printer, copies are often bound with his edition of Poggio Bracciolini's history of the Florentine republic, covering the years 1350-1455, in the Italian version of Poggio's son Jacopo, printed within a month of the Bruni. Jacques Le Rouge, a Frenchman from Chablis, was a friend of Jenson, in whose shop he may have worked for a time. Using founts modelled after Jenson's, Le Rouge worked in Venice from 1471 through 1478, producing over 25 editions, including an unusual proportion of first editions, before moving most of his printing material to Pinerolo near Turin, printing eight more editions there before 1481.