Itinerarium provinciarum omniu[m] Antonini Augusti, cum fragmento eiusdem/necnon indice haud quaq[ue] asperna[n]do

16mo. ff. 160 (including f. 8 blank). Contemporary or near-contemporary polished calf, imperceptibly mended, gilt borders, spine-ornaments and oval wreaths on both covers. Printed in red and black, with Tory’s ‘puzzling woodcut monogram’ (see F. Schreiber, The Estiennes. New York, 1982, 15 (lacks f. 8)) appearing for the first time at the end. Title leaf neatly restored at upper blank margin. First leaf of Tory’s dedication in excellent facsimile.

Editio princeps of the ubiquitous ‘Antonine Itinerary,’ so attributed here by Geoffrey Tory, who took his text from a manuscript owned by Christophe de Longueil, to the patronage of the ‘good’ second-century Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (d. 161 A.D.), although the survey of Roman roads, crossroads, and distances, in Roman miles, between named stations throughout the Empire, including Spain, North Africa, and Britain, was probably begun under Augustus, if not Julius Caesar, and this systematic redaction is now usually dated to the beginning of the third century. The ‘Encyclopedie Larousse’ declares it ‘the most important and precious of the geographical works the ancient world has given to us,’ and reprints of Tory’s original proliferated in the next two hundred years: see, e.g., Bib# 1742142/Fr# 303 in this collection.

See also R. Mortimer, Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts. Pt. 1 French 16th Century Books, Cambridge, 1964, no. 326 (the crude two-page map in the Hofer copy, unseen elsewhere, must be extraneous); H. M. Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600, in Cambridge Libraries. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1967, A-1229.

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