Conjuracion de Catilina y la Guerra de Jurgurta

Madrid: Por Joachin Ibarra, 1772. IBARRA, Joachin. The Magnificent Ibarra Sallust

[SALLUST]. La Conjuracion de Catilina y la Guerra de Jurgurta. [Madrid: Por Joachin Ibarra, 1772].

First Ibarra edition. Folio (13 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches; 352 x 251 mm.). [2, blank], [18], [1]-395, [1, colophon pp. With half-title, engraved title with border by E. Montfort, engraved medallion portrait by E. Montfort after M.S. Maella, engraved map of North Africa, and eight engraved plates by E.S. Carmona, J. Ballester, F. Assensio, and J. Fabregat, after M.S. Maella and others, including frontispiece. Numerous engraved illustrations, head- and tail-pieces, and initials.

Original full red morocco. Covers decoratively bordered in gilt. Spine stamped in gilt. Green morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Watered blue silk endpapers. Previous owner's small old bookplate on front free endpaper. Some minor rubbing to board edges and corners. But generally, a near fine, crisp copy of Ibarra's typographical masterpiece.

With the bookplate of Mexican bibliophile Florencio Gavito and a tipped in note stating this book had been acquired from the 1920 sale of the library of Edmond Rostand, author of "Cyrano be Bergerac."

The text contains the Spanish translation of Sallust's (86-35 B.C.) Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Iugurthinum in a beautiful calligraphic italic type, with the original Latin in two columns of roman type at the foot of each page. The translation is attributed to the Infante Don Gabriel Antonio de Borbon, second son of Carlos III. Notes and a piece on the Phoenicians by Perez Bayer follow.

"One of the finest volumes produced in any country in the eighteenth century" (Updike). According to Palau, its beauty may even surpass the best work of Didot, Bodoni, and other masters.

"The book rapidly became famous abroad as well as within Spain. This was partially due to the fact that the one hundred and twenty large-paper copies which had been printed for the translator, the Infante Don Gabriel Antonio de Borbon, second son of the King, Carlos III, were presented to celebrities all over Europe. Benjamin Franklin, at that time the American envoy to the French court, received one, and he was high in his praise of Ibarra's achievement" (Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions).

Cohen-de Ricci, col. 938. Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions, 16. Palau 288134. Updike, Printing Types, II, pp. 71-73.

HBS 68445.

$16,500.