Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco

41. muRATORI, Ludovico Antonio. Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores ab anno aerae christianae
500 ad 1500 … cum indice locupletissimo.
Mediolani, ex typographia Societatis Palatinae in
Regia Curia, (1723-1751), € 18.000
Folio, 25 volumes bound in 28 (cm 41x26), fine contemporary
full vellum, two labels with titles in gilt. Illustrated
with 26 engraved frontispieces, 25 portraits, 2 folded
maps and 51 engraved plates. Muratori (1672-1750) is
considered the father of the Italian historiography; the
man who achieved this amazing performance was librarian
of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan and to the Estense
in Modena. The fruit of his immense historical and literary
investigations on the Italian historical sources and of the
active collaboration of local correspondents, were published
in his “Writers on Italian Affairs”: chronicles, diaries,
and legal documents illustrating the history of medieval
Italian society. It was published with the assistance of the
Società Palatina of Milan, formed by Italian patriots and
scholars. A fine and complete copy, with very few leaves
browned. PMM 181: “the first of its kind to comprise the
entire corpus of medieval sources relating to a whole country,
including annals and chronicles, laws and ordinances, letters,
poems and inscriptions: an achievement which put Italy a century
ahead of similar
undertakings such as
the Monumenta Germaniae
Historica, or
the Rolls series …
By applying the critical
methods of Mabillon
to the sources of
Italian history, Muratori
became the
founder of modern
Italian historiography.
Gibbon acknowledged
him as his ‘guide and
master’. A large number
of Muratori’s texts
are still available only
in his original edition”.
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