图片文件尺寸 : 5426 x 6025px
ALCYONIUS, PETRUS (PIETRO ALCIONIO). C.1487–1527.:Medices legatus de exilio. Venice: Aldi, 1522.
4to (210 x 134 mm). Woodcut printer\’s device on title and colophon. 20th century red morocco, ruled in gilt, with gilt printer\’s devices reproduced on both covers, marbled endpapers. Some wear to joints, old ink notations, scattered browning and spotting.
Provenance: Giorgio di Veroli (1890-1952, bookplate).
Alcyonius, a Venetian classicist scholar under the patronage of Pope Clement VII, was appointed Professor of Classical Greek at the University of Florence in 1522. That same year, he published this work, written in the form of a dialogue whose thesis is that exile is not an evil. It was written in elegant Latin, reminiscent of Cicero, which lead to a personal enemy accusing him of secretly plagiarizing passages from Cicero\’s lost work De Gloria, and then destroying the only existing copy of the original to hide his plagiarism. Though the accusation was groundless, it did irreparable harm to his reputation. Adams A633; Brunet I, 153; Renouard 95/6.