INCUNABLE. - PLATINA (Bartolomeo Sacchi da).... - Lot 19 - Osenat

Lot 19
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INCUNABLE. - PLATINA (Bartolomeo Sacchi da).... - Lot 19 - Osenat
INCUNABLE. - PLATINA (Bartolomeo Sacchi da). Vitæ pontificum]. Treviso, Giovanni Rosso, 10 February 1486, n.s.]. In-folio, 135 ff. of which the first with blank recto, without the last leaf, blank, brown granite basane, spine with partitions and fleurons with red title-piece, ornamented edges, spotted with red (binding of the first quarter of the 18th century). Colophon (f. r5 verso) : Excelle[n]tissimi historici Platinæ i[n] uitas su[m]mor[um] po[n]tificu[m] ad Sixtu[m] .iiii. po[n] tifice[m] maximu[m] / præclar[um] opus fœliciter explicit : accurate castigatu[m] ac i[m]pensa magistri Ioa[n]nis uercelen-/ sis. .M.cccc.lxxxv. die .x. februarii. - Signatures: a10, b-q8 , r5 . - Marginal tear without missing on f. i2 , some rare foxing and stains. - GW, M33883 , HC 13048 , ISTC ip00770000 , CIBN P-445 , IGI 7859. Beautiful impression by Giovanni Rosso, who worked in Venice (ca. 1480-1482 and 1486- 1519) and in Treviso (1482-1486). PORTRAIT OF THE POPES AS PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCES EXERCISING A POWER WITH A UNIVERSAL VOCATION. First printed in 1479, these Lives of all the pontiffs were composed in 1474 on the model of Suetonius. While Platina was initially more of a compiler, taking up the Liber pontificalis and its continuations, he then proceeded as an original historian for the popes elected from 1455 onwards, from Calixtus III to Sixtus IV, collecting contemporary written and oral sources, or calling on his own memories. If he scratched Paul II because of his personal resentment towards him, he evoked more generally, for the sake of truth, the corruption or nepotism that took place in Rome, and even dared to mention Pope Joan, thus showing a critical freedom that would hardly be found for four centuries in Catholic historiography - his work was moreover censored in the 16th century. However, based on personalities such as Pius II, poet and humanist historian, absolute ruler and willing to launch a crusade to liberate Constantinople, or Sixtus IV, founder of the Sistine Chapel and organizer of the Vatican library, Platina renewed the traditional image of the pope by seeking to promote the militant conception of a philosopher prince exercising a power with a universal vocation. HUMANIST AND VATICAN LIBRARIAN, PLATINA (1421-1481) was a native of the village of Piadena (Platina in Latin) near Cremona, and served for a time in the army. After studying in Mantua and Florence (where he frequented the Medici court), he entered the service of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga and then obtained posts in the Roman Curia. Intrigues made him thrown in prison twice (he was even tortured under Paul II), but he regained his credit under Sixtus IV and was appointed prefect of the Vatican library in 1475. He is the author of historiographical works, political and philosophical treatises, and a work on dietetics. His portrait is known to us by a fresco of the Vatican Lodges painted in 1477 by Melozzo da Forli. A good copy with wide margins. Provenance: manuscript bookplate "Claudius de Britonis miles Sanctissimi Sepolchri, 1552", on the first page, blank. This is probably Claude de Berton de Crillon (brother of the "brave Crillon", Louis de Berton) who was first consul of Avignon, captain in the wars of religion, lieutenant of Fabrice Serbelloni against the Protestants, and died at the siege of Ménerbes in 1574. - Nunc vero ex lib[ris] Joannis Morelly, doctor" (on the same page). An early handwritten note on a flyleaf identifies him with Jean Morelli, who lived in Avignon in the second half of the 16th century, and wrote a Discours des guerres de la comté de Venaysin et de la Provence, preserved in the Bibliothèque ingimbertine de Carpentras and never published. Provenance: Antoine-Laurent Potier (n° 1404 of the catalogue of the auction of his bookshop, Paris, February 25, 1870). NB : Rhodes: Treviso 91. CBB 3188. CIH 2773. IBE 4658. IBP 4470. IDL 3714. Pell 9326. CRF IV 376. CRF V 769. CRF VI 1649. CRF VIII 424. CRF X 543. CRF XI 841. CRF XII 482. CRF XIII 1895. CRF XIV 407. CRF XVII 488. VB 3617. BSB-Ink P-567. Pr 6498. BMC VI 897.IB 28435. Bod-inc P-344. Bornatico 3. Collijn: Stockholm 163. Collijn: Uppsala 1234. Günther 3004. Hubay: Neuburg-Ottobeuren 365. Kind: Göttingen 910. Madsen 3290. 3291. Marquès: Girona 3. Mendes: Lisboa 1050. 1051. Oates 2465-2467. Ohly-Sack 2384. Rhodes: Oxford 1428. Sack: Freiburg 2907. 2908. Scardilli-Venezia 234. Walsh: Harvard 3325. Wilhelmi: Greifswald 518.
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