Item #34970 Libri. De Officus. De Senectute. DeAmicitia. Marcus Tulius CICERO.
Libri. De Officus. De Senectute. DeAmicitia.

Libri. De Officus. De Senectute. DeAmicitia.

London. William Pickering. 1821. Hardcover. 48mo. 8.5x 5cm, (3.5"x1.9"), 155,[1]p., vignettes on the title & half title, engraved frontis(Cicero), in the original pebble grain cloth, with printed paper spinelabel (chipped), else fine copy, rare. (cgc) Text in Latin. Three ofCicero's rhetorics: On Duty, On Old Age, and On Friendship, originallydated 44 B.C. This edition is one of the "Diamond Classics" a series ofsmall books with tiny type published by William Pickering in optionalleather or cloth. Pickering was an innovator in the use of cloth in bookbinding. "Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the great American President, alsobecame a collector of miniature books. In May 1929 he wrote to Henderson" My own tiny books are neither very rare nor very numerous but I continuemy interest in them'. He possessed 162 items, most of them under 3 incheshigh and none of them exceeding 4 inches. As late as April 1973, theSwann Auction Galleries in New sold some Pickering Diamond Classics,namely the Milton, the Cicero, the Patriarch and the Catullus which wereinscribed on the flyleaf by Roosevelt" - Louis Bondy. "Although notassembled in a specially created travelling case, Pickering's DiamondClassics' published in London and comprising English, Greek, Latin andItalian classics, serve a very similar purpose. Due to the greateditorial care and the superb printing and binding that went into theirmanufacture, combined with the importance of their contents, these littlevolumes are now very eagerly collected by many minibibliophiles, and evenmore generally by lovers of finely produced books. All of them exceedhowever the 3-inch limit". - Louis W. Bondy. Miniature Books,1981. Item #34970

Price: $900.00

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