First Combined Edition and Possible Shakespeare Source Book
Conspiracie of Catiline. Written by Constancius, Felicius, Durantinus, and translated bi Thomas Paynell: with the historye of Iugurth writen by the famous Romaine Salust, and translated into Englyshe by Alexander Barcklaye.
London: John Waley, 1557.
Full Description:
SALLUST. The Conspiracie of Catiline. Written by Constancius, Felicius, Durantinus, and translated bi Thomas Paynell: with the historye of Iugurth writen by the famous Romaine Salust, and translated into Englyshe by Alexander Barcklaye. London: John Waley, 1557.
First combined edition. Second edition of Catiline translated by Paynell and third edition of De Bella Jugurthino translated by Barclay. Two parts in one small quarto volume (7 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 185 x 135 mm). Volumes bound in reverse order. [4], 85 (but numbered xxxiiii, lxxxvij); [5], 120 leaves. With separate title, pagination and register for each book. Title-page for Conspiracie of Catilin within architectural woodcut border. Both books with engraved initials. Black letter. Place of publication and printer’s name from colophon. A translation of "De conjuratione L. Catalinae" by Felice Costanzo, and "Jugurtha" by Sallust. Bound without blank Y6 (?).
Modern brown speckled calf, ruled in blind, stamped in gilt. Board edges gilt. Title-page of Conspiracie is laid down with margin top margin extended and inner margin slightly extended. Leaf b2 with hole at inner margin, affecting a few words. Leaf z2 with small closed tear to top margin, with no loss. Previous owner's old ink notes on front free endpaper, and some old ink marginalia and underlining. A tiny worm hold in the first few pages of Historye, just touching a few letters. Some mild dampstaining throughout. Overall a very good copy.
"To Paynell there was apparently no incongruity in thus 'in one volume comprised' combining with Barclay's translation of Sallust's Jugurtha his own translation of the precocious Felicius's rechaufé of Sallust's Catiline which had been made so late as 1518. That this arrangement was not merely the publisher's inspiration, as might be imagined from the fact that the dedication to Henry VIII is retained in the Catiline, seems assured from Paynell's statement in the introduction to the Jugurtha. However, the fact that the general-title is the only 'link' in the first part of the volume indicates a change of plan after the Catiline was set-up. The printer of this volume has not been identified- Walley despite the colophon being only the publisher- but as there are numerous blocks and initials it is not likely that he will always remain unidentified. Paynell claims in his dedication to the Jugurth to have perused and amended Barclay's text which 'thorough vnlearned correctors' was 'somewhat mangled and corrupted'. The revision however appears to have been rather superficial." (Pforzheimer 363).
"...Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus, 86-34 B.C.) owed much to Julius Ceasar, because, after he had been degraded from the Senate in 50 B.C. for licentious conduct, Ceasar had him reinstated and made governor of Numidia. After his patron's murder Sallust retired from public life and wrote a history of the years 78-67 B.C. of which little remains, and short accounts of the Jugurthine war and the Catiline conspiricy. In this last he defended Ceasar and showed the incompetence and corruption of the aristocrats in the Senate who opposed him. Sallust preferred the magnificence of Ceasar to the acknowledged virtue of the stoic Cato. Most previous historians had been annalists, but Sallust unified his work by his strong partisanship, and began the glorification of Ceasar which flourished under Augustus and the later emperors of the Julian line. His works were well known in the Renaissance but not published in England until 1615, and although his Jugurthine War was translated by Sir A. Barclay in about 1520 and twice reprinted... Shakespeare may possibly have read Sallust...." —Bullough, Geoffrey [editor], Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare. London: 1977.
Pforzheimer 363, ESTC S101906
HBS 68847.
$10,000.
Price: $10,000.00
Item #68847