THE LIFE OF POGGIO BRACCIOLINI
Liverpool: Printed by J. M. M'Creery for Cadell & Davies, London, 1802. First edition. 4to. (4), iv, 487 pp. Engraved view on title page; with the half-title. Poggio (1380-1459), an Italian scholar and humanist, "was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classical Latin manuscripts, mostly decaying and forgotten in German, Swiss, and French monastic libraries" (Wikipedia), including works by Lucretius, Cicero, and Quintilian, among others. Shepherd (1768-1847), of Liverpool and a "dissenting minister and politician, ... his interest in Italian literature aroused by his friendship with William Roscoe, led to [this work] ... received with general approbation [and] translated into French, German, and Italian"; from 1796 he served as a burgess of Liverpool, “taking an active part in municipal affairs in the advanced liberal interest" (DNB). Early 19th-century armorial bookplate of Charles Lawrence on front pastedown, a very good wide-margined copy. Contemporary red straight-grain half-morocco (old repairs to joints and corners) and marbled boards and endpapers, gilt title and riles on spine. (11096). Item #64902
Price: $300.00