Aldine Edition of Cicero’s Letters to Atticus

Second Aldine edition, after the first of 1513, including Aldus’ dedication to Filippo Csulai Móré, Hungarian ambassador to Venice.

The rediscovery of Cicero’s Letters to Atticus by Petrarch in the Chapter Library of Verona in 1345 was — with the benefit of hindsight — a critical moment in the nascent Italian Renaissance. Cicero was already a mainstay of the Classics in the West, but this was largely due to his philosophical legacy. His forensic oratory — legal speeches — and letters had long since fallen by the wayside during the long years of the Middle Ages. But the Renaissance saw a complete inversion of this, and Cicero’s legal speeches, with their immediacy and topical connection to the political life of Rome, were increasingly popular. The discovery of Cicero’s Letters was thus a sensation, and quickly became one of the most popular texts amongst Italian humanists.

Aldus Manutius was, in turn, the greatest of the scholar-printers of the High Renaissance, and over a thirty-year period from 1494–1515 Aldus, with his father-in-law Andrea Torresano, published numerous editions of Greek and Latin texts, including many editiones principes (first printed editions) of Greek texts, among them Plato and Aristotle. After Aldus’ premature death in 1515, Andrea continued printing new texts, as well as reissues of editions printed in Aldus’ lifetime, often with improved readings and errors corrected.

Thus in the present charming copy of Cicero’s letters, we have one of the most important texts from the Italian Renaissance printed by the most important printer of the Renaissance.

Adams C-1909; Renouard 93.15.