Item #25492 Rhetoricorum ad Herennium Libri Quatuor, alias Ars nova, sive nova rhetorica. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marinus Becichemus Josse Bade, Gilbert de Longueil, Geronimo Capiduro.
Rhetoricorum ad Herennium Libri Quatuor, alias Ars nova, sive nova rhetorica.
Rhetoricorum ad Herennium Libri Quatuor, alias Ars nova, sive nova rhetorica.

Rhetoricorum ad Herennium Libri Quatuor, alias Ars nova, sive nova rhetorica.

Venice: Ioannem Mariam Bonellum, 1557. Hardcover. Rhetoric For Herennius, the oldest surviving Latin work on rhetoric, written in the late 80s BC, and here published in Venice at the height of the Renaissance. A scarce incunabula, and important work on "speech designed to persuade".

The Rhetorica was addressed to Gaius Herennius (unknown; likely a member of a Roman mercantile family) and remained the most popular book on rhetoric through the Renaissance, during which period it was the standard schoolbook text on rhetoric. The Rhetorica was the first work to present the subject in a structured form, and to focus on practical applications and examples of rhetoric.

Folio, wood engraved title page, [6] pp, 137 pp. The text printed in 2 columns, each section with a wood engraved capital. Signed on the title page in period ink, Bertolameus Pergala. The folio includes a 6 pp loosely inserted hand stitched manuscript letter, written in Latin, and with an Italian caption in ink on the verso, "Orazione fatta da [To?] Rubino dottorate a [?] 7 [otbre] 1775".

Extended title: . Rhetoricorum de inventione libri duo, alias, ars vetus, seu Vetus rhetorica. In Rhetorica ad Herennium, Hieronymi Capiduri Parentini, & Iodici Badii Accensii commentaria, Gilberti Longolii annotationes, Claudii Pontani scholia, Petri Victorii castigatio, Marini Becichemi Scodrensis castigationes. In Rhetorica de Inventione, M. Fabii Victorini rhetoris, D. Hieronymi praeceptoris, commentariorum libri duo: Marini Becichemi in libros de inventione, & in ipsos Victorini commentarios castigationes. Index praeterea in utraque haec Ciceronis rhetorica, atque in ipsa interpretum commentaria. Impressa sunt ad exemplum postremae editionis Aldinae, ex ultima Pauli Manutii correctione.

Bound in period thin vellum. Covers dusty, torn at lower portion of rear cover, the last page of text with some damage along gutter, minimal loss to text, otherwise text bright and clean. OCLC: 36735161 locates three copies, at Harvard, University of Illinois and Duke. Good condition. Item #25492

Price: $800.00