Lot 10: POGGIO BRACCIOLINI, [Giovanni Francesco] (1380-1459), De avaritia ; CICERO, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.), De natura deorum ; De finibus bonorum et malorum, in Latin, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER

[Germany, mid-15th century] 206 x 145mm. iv + 262 + iv leaves: 1-4 8, 5-27 1 0, COMPLETE, catchwords on final versos, signatures lower right on first half of gatherings, 26 lines written in brown ink in a semi-humanistic cursive bookhand between two verticals and 27 horizontals ruled in plummet and brown ink, justification: 140 x 90mm, rubrics in display script and three- to six-line initials in red, some not supplied, initials with guide letters in ink (a few neat wormholes affecting first and final gatherings, occasional light and unobtrusive stains). Contemporary boards rebacked in sheep, retaining fore-edge and upper- and lower-edge catch plates on lower board, abbreviated titles written on head and tail edges (outer half of upper board replaced, some minor worming). PROVENANCE: 1. The paper bears a bull's head watermark, similar to Piccard, VIII, 57, of a type widely used in Germany in the fifteenth century. The 15th-century Latin inscription on the front endleaf, listing the contents for quick identification of the volume, suggests that it was in a library of some size. A different hand has listed the peccata maiora on the verso of the final leaf: lack of faith, sodomy, lŠse majest‚, incest, sacrilege and usury. 2. The Barnabite College of St Michael, Vienna: inscriptions on front endleaf and above title on f.1; library mark C.46 on front endleaf. The Barnabites, noted for their scholarly activities as well as their schools, were established at St Michael in 1626 and were replaced by the Salvatorians in 1923. CONTENT: Poggio Bracciolini, De avaritia ff.1-36v; Cicero, De natura deorum ff.37-130v: liber primus ff.37-66, liber secundus ff.66-107, liber tertius ff.107-130v; Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum ff.131-253v: liber primus ff.131-151, liber secundus ff.151-184v, liber tertius ff.184v-203v, liber quartus ff.204-224v, liber quintus ff.224v-253v; ff.254-262 ruled blanks. This manuscript unites texts by one of the greatest of classical authors and by the prominent Florentine humanist, Poggio Bracciolini. Cicero's De finibus, a treatise 'on the different conceptions of the chief good and evil', was written in 45 B.C. Dedicated to Marcus Junius Brutus, the work discusses Epicurean and Stoic ethics and offers the views of the 'Old' Academy on the 'chief good'. His dialogue De natura deorum, addressed to Brutus and written during 45 and 44 B.C., expounds the views of the Epicurean, Stoic and Academic schools of philosophy on the nature of the gods. Cicero's language and style were much admired and imitated by renaissance scholars, and his influence upon Poggio is evident in both the latter's writings and humanist pursuits. Poggio's own prose imitated the Ciceronian model, and he too brought an artistic and moral disposition to bear on public life. Poggio's dialogues on contemporary political, social and economic questions include De Avaritia (1428/9), in which he examines the effect of avarice on city and state, being particularly critical of professors of law and mendicant friars. Although Poggio justified the language and structure of De Avaritia to Niccol• Niccoli by citing Cicero's example, he did make considerable revisions to his original text in response to Niccol•'s criticism. His original text, sent to other friends besides Niccol•, achieved some circulation outside Italy, being printed in Strasbourg in 1513. The present manuscript contains the text in the revised form, see H. Harth, 'Niccol• Niccoli als literarischer Zensor, Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte von Poggio's De Avaritia ', Rinascimento, 7, 1967, pp.29-53. Poggio was responsible for the rediscovery of many classical texts in libraries throughout Switzerland, Germany and France. Amongst the texts of antiquity, which his searches brought to light, were commentaries on Cicero, found at St Gallen in 1416, and a further seven of Cicero's orations found in the cathedral library of Cologne in 1417. He played an important part in the dissemination of De natura deorum (see L.D. Reynolds, Texts and Transmission, Oxford, 1983, p.126), finding and bringing to Italy a copy of the text given by the Bishop of Strasbourg to the Cathedral library in the early 11th century. This manuscript, left to Niccol• Niccoli and then to the library of San Marco, Florence (Laur. S.Marco 257), was fundamental to the spread of the text through Italy. The dissemination of De finibus in Italy had already been fostered by Petrarch. Whilst the medieval circulation of Cicero's texts in Germany is unclear, the oldest surviving manuscript solely of the text of De finibus has been identified as being written in western Germany in the 11th century (Vatican, Pal. lat. 1513, see Reynolds, p.113). The text was known in Bamberg at the end of the 12th century. Fifteenth-century German scholars were aware of Cicero manuscripts -- two copies were made of a De finibus in the Palatinate Library, Heidelberg, in 1466 (Erlangen 618) and 1467 (Vatican, Pal.lat. 1525). This interest had probably been stimulated by Italian humanists like Poggio, and the present volume revealingly combines his De avaritia with texts by one of the most admired authors of antiquity.