Historia B. Platinae de vitis pontificum romanorum. by Platina, Bartolomeo - 1568

Coloniae: Apud Maternum Cholinum, 1568. Folio (32.5 cm, 12.75"). [24], 454 [i.e., 464], [2], 469–565 [i.e., 535], [1], 98, [2], [32 (index)], 28, 31, [17], 144 [i.e., 146] pp. (pagination erratic).

Bartolomeo Platina (born Bartolomeo Sacchi; 1421–81) was a leading member of the humanist community at Rome and Vatican librarian, acclaimed as the author of the first printed cookbook, De honesta voluptate. His Lives of the Popes, which originally appeared in 1475 under the title Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, went through numerous editions and was for quite some time the standard papal history, despite its often critical assessment of the Roman Pontiffs. This is the third edition of the version prepared by the great Augustinian scholar Onofrio Panvinio, and incorporates the first edition of Panvinio's Chronicon ecclesiasticum (see below).
    The text is ornamented with woodcut initials and occasional head- and tailpieces. Panvinio's De ritu sepeliendi mortuos, De stationibus urbis Romae, and Chronicon ecclesiasticum are appended at the back (as issued), and have separate title-pages and pagination.
    
    On Platina, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 430. Platina: Adams P1422; VD16 P 3264. Panvinio (Chronicon ecclesiasticum): VD16 P 250; not in Adams. Period-style calf, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-stamped compartment decorations, and raised bands ruled in blind with ornaments extending onto covers. A few small early inked marks of emphasis, one pencilled annotation; back fly-leaf with early inked numeral in upper margin now smeared and offset onto opposing page. Pages gently age-toned with occasional light spots or offsetting; waterstaining to margins of first and last few leaves; appearance overall clean and pleasing.