Bruni Aretino, Leonardo (1369-1444)

Epistolarum Familiarium Libri VIII. [Venice: Damianus de Mediolano, de Gorgonzola, in part by Petrus de Quarengiis, Bergomensis], 15 June 1495.Folio, a8, b-i6 [56 of 56 leaves], text edited by Antonius Moretus and Hieronymus Squarzaficus; printed in single column roman letter throughout, a large and clean copy, with many deckle edges; ex libris Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (1778-1841), book collector, classical scholar, schoolmaster of Harrow School, friend of Byron, and mentioned in Dibdin's Bibliomania, with his small neat pen inscription to ffep, "Coll: perf: H. Drury./Harrow. C.24.2/Exemplar pulchrum/Empter. Payne."; bound in full sprinkled calf (likely Drury's early 19th century binding), both boards detached, tape to endleaves and boards, in need of binding repair or rebinding, contents very good, 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 in."The letters of Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo are arguably the most vivid and revealing sources for this extraordinary moment [the arrival of Humanism in Italy] in the history of Western civilization. [...] In these letters we find vivid descriptions of life in the papal curia; an account of Bruni's narrow escape from a Roman mob that attacked the Vatican in 1405; a record of Bruni's friendships with Niccolo Niccoli and Poggio and the avid search for books in humanist circles; the announcement of his marriage to the daughter of a Florentine patrician; a depressing chronicle of ecclesiastical politics in the last days of the Great Schism; and Bruni's excited responses to Poggio's first manuscript discoveries in Germany." (Hankins, James. 2007. Introd. to Epistolarum libri VIII. Roma: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, by Leonardo Bruni, edited by Lorenzo Mehus. 2 vols. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e letteratura for the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (Rari 9/I-II), VII-XXXIV.) http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:5401534Goff B1243; HC 1567* = H 1566?; Pell 1119; Bod-inc B-572; Sheppard 4446, 4575; Pr 5520; BMC V 512; BSB-Ink B-942; GW 5607; ISTC ib01243000; one of eighteen Gorgonzola imprints in ISTC; this title was only published four times before 1501; rare at auction.