Bound for the bibliophile archbishop
EPICTETUS. Enchiridion. Cum Angeli Politiani interpretatione latina. Item Arriani commentarius disputationum eiusdem Epicteti, graecè & latinè, interprete Iacobo Schegkio medico Physico Tubingensi. Græcus contextus longè quàm antehac prodit emendatior. Accessit index accuratus rerum notatu digniorum. “Lyon” [i.e. Geneva]: Heirs of Eustace Vignon. 1600.
Early seventeenth-century tan morocco, richly gilt, armorial supralibros of Léonore d’Étampes de Valençay to boards (Olivier 1663, fer 3, see below), enclosed in intricate centre-pieces of foliate tools with flowers and grapes, all within 3 sets of double filet borders alternated with 2 ornamental borders, with corner-pieces in same design as centre-pieces, flat spine with similar motif enclosed in double-filet and ornamental borders, edges gilt, later “Epictete” in ink to spine; pp. 5, [3], 38, [2], 532, [19], [1 (blank)], text in Greek and Latin in parallel columns, woodcut printer’s device to title, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces; boards slightly worn with old restorations, front hinge and head of spine repaired, extremities slightly worn, front free endpaper renewed; marginal worming slightly increasing to the end, always far from the printed surface, small stain to upper corner of ff. FF2 ad finem, paper minimally toned, generally very good; “…quines” and “Franciscus Des” in ink to front pastedown, “Lanidy …” to title, “Franciscus Desormaux Quartanus anno Domini 1770 … 1760” to verso of rear free endpaper.
A handsome edition of the manual of Stoic ethics, sumptuously bound for Léonore d’Étampes de Valençay (1589-1651), Archbishop of Reims.
The Enchiridion, or Handbook of Epictetus, is a concise digest of the Discourses, a collection of informal lectures by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, compiled by his pupil Arrian in the second century AD. This seminal text profoundly influenced Western philosophical and political thought, spanning from Antiquity and the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and the ideas of the Founding Fathers. Notably, it was among the books John Harvard bequeathed to the newly established Harvard College in 1638 and was also found in the libraries of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
In this edition, the Latin translation of the Enchiridion is the work of the celebrated humanist scholar Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494), later supplemented by Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580). It is accompanied by Arrian's extensive commentary, translated into Latin by the German polymath Jakob Schegk (1511-1587). Although the imprint states “Lyon”, the volume was actually printed in Geneva. Some copies of the same edition were issued with a different title page, stating “Geneva” instead. Eustache Vignon (1530-1588) frequently printed works under false imprints, including Leiden and Middelburg. His heirs, moreover, published other editions of the Enchiridion in Geneva in 1594 and 1595.
Provenance: Léonore d’Étampes de Valençay, Bishop of Chartres and later Archbishop of Reims, was a prominent figure in the French Counter-Reformation and an avid bibliophile. His extensive library was sold in 1653, a year after his death, with many of its volumes now held in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Although a catalogue of his library was published before the sale, this volume is not listed (see Catalogue de livres de la bibliothèque de feu Monsieur l’Archevêque de Reims).
See Chaix, Dufour and Moeckli, Les livres imprimés à Genève de 1550 à 1600 (1966), p. 158.
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