SIGONIUS, CAROLUS: Caroli Sigonii Historiarum De Occidentali Imperio Libri XX . Ad illustris et excellentis…cum indice copiosissimo rerum, et verborum (1578)

Carolus Sigonius = Carlo Sigonio (c. 1524 – 1584)

HISTORIARUM DE OCCIDENTALI IMPERIO LIBRI XX

Bologna, Societatem Typographiae, MD.LXX.VIII (1578). First edition.

Description : [in Folio] – pp. 564, (48).

ROMAN HISTORY. A very well preserved copy of this sixteenth century treatise in its first edition on the history of the roman empire from the Emperor Diocletianus, who divided the empire in East and West to the death of Justinianus and the destruction of the Empire upon the longobard invasions.

The treatise is the work of the Italian humanist Carolus Sigonius born in Modena around the year 1524. He attended the philosophical schools of Bologna and Pavia, and in 1545 was elected professor of Greek in his native place in succession to Franciscus Portus of Candia. In 1552 he was appointed to a professorship at Venice, and then to the chair of Eloquence at Padua in 1560. Sigonius’s reputation chiefly rests upon his publications on Greek and Roman antiquities, very detailed works, among which is worth remember : Fasti consulares (1550), with an extended commentary, from the regal period to Tiberius, based on the study of fragments of old bronze tablets dug up in 1547 on the site of the old Forum.

De antiquo jure Romanorum, Italiae, provinciarum (1560) and De Romanae jurisprudentiae judiciis (1574), De republica Atheniensium (1564) and De Atheniensium et Lacedaemoniorum temporibus (1565), the first well-arranged accounts of the constitution, history, and chronology of Athens and Sparta along with which may be mentioned a similar work on the religious, political, and military system of the Jews (De republica Ebraeorum) and his history of the Kingdom of Italy (De regno Italiae, 1580) from the invasion of longobards (568 AD) to the end of the 13th century. In order to obtain material for these works, Sigonius consulted all the archives and family chronicles of Italy as well as public and private libraries. At the request of Pope Gregory XIII he undertook to write the history of the Christian Church, but did not live to complete the work. The most complete edition of his works is that by P Argelati (Milan, 1732-1737), which contains his life by L.A Muratori.

The Historiaum de Occidentali Imperio had 3 editions in the xvi century of which the present copy is the first edition (1578, Bologna) it was further reprinted in 1579 ( Basilea, 2nd ed. quarto ) and then 1593 (Frankofurti).

Wonderful copy in excellent conditions, very clean interiors, woodcut printer´s device on title page, beautifully carved woodcut decorated initials at the beginning of each Liber, text entirely framed in double-ruled borders, quarter vellum binding with titlepiece on spine and pale yellow coloured edges. An attractive copy in excellent antiquarian conditions.

Cfr.: FRANCIOSI, Della vita e delle opere di Carlo Sigonio Modena, (1872); HESSEL, De regno Italiae
libri XX. von Carlo Sigonio, eine quellenkritische Untersuchung (1900); ADAMS, Catalogue of books
printed on the continent of Europe, 1501-1600 in Cambridge Libraries. Cambridge, (1977). S 1117 ;
NUC, National Union Catalogue , Mansell (1968-1981) Vol. 546, 18.