SUETONIUS, Caius.

Leeuwarden, apud Franciscus Halma, 1714-15. Large 4to. Engr. extra title,+ (48),+ 724 pp.+ 18 engr. plates, of which 4 are folding; (2),+ 725-1344 pp.+ 11 engr. plates, of which 2 are folding. With several large engr. vignettes. Titles printed in red and black. Foxing. Full dark red morocco, richly gilt somewhat rubbed spines, boards with gilt frames and fleurons and with the gilt armorial bookplate of the Earl of Derby, gilt inner bordures, all edges trimmed and gilt. Two volumes (bound by Charles Lewis?). With the vellum book plate of Lord Gosford and with a handwritten note signed Acheson (the family name of the Earl of Gosford) pasted on front fly leaf ; ”This was Renouard’s copy and was bought in an uncut state at his sale in 1834 by Payne and Foss. It was then bound by Lewis and purchased by me 1835”. From the library of Bengt Lassen. Schweiger p. 979. Moss p. 632. Dibdin II, p 442. Renouard, Bibliotheque d'un Amateur, 1819, vol. 4, Histoire p. 103. ”The Renouard-Gosford-Derby-copy”, one of the few copies of the largest of the three sizes of paper. ”Exemplaire sur le plus grand des hors papiers qui ont été trés de cette Edition” (Renouard).Sold as number 1405 in the ”Catalogue of a Distinguished Portion of the Choice, Curious and Splendid Library of Monsieur Renouard” 1834, and bought by the famous firm of Payne and Foss. They played a prominent part in building great English libraries in the begining of the 19th century, and among their clients was also Archibald Acheson, the third Earl of Gosford (1806-64). He built a large and according to De Ricci extremely beautiful library at the Gosford Castle in Ireland. His library was sold in 1878 to the London Bookseller James Toovey. But this copy must have passed on earlier to the 14th Earl of Derby, Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley (1799–1869), who was an English statesman, Chief Secretary for Ireland a period, three times First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of Oxford University etc. The library of the Earls of Derby at Knowsley was largely sold by auction at Christies in four sales in 1953 and 1954. It was at the sale probably bought by an antiquarian bookseller from whose catalogue Bengt Lassen bought it.The second and best of the two Pitiscus’ editions of Suetonius. The first was published in 8vo in 1690. Samuel Pitiscus gives in his commentaries extracts from nearly 900 ancient and modern authors, and among the three indexes there is an Index editionum. The edition also contains ”Monumentum Ancyranum”, with comments by Casaubon and Johannes Gronovius. Samuel Pitiscus (1637-1727), nephew of the famous Bartholomaeus Pitiscus, was a Dutch historian and classicist from Zutphen. He studied theology in Deventer and was later appointed headmaster of the Latin school in Zutphen. Bengt Lassen (1908-74) var hovrättsråd och åren 1953-73 VD för Norstedts förlag. Han var en duktig latinist och hade en fin samling romerska författare. Han figurerar i bakgrunden i Maria Langs deckare ”Mördarens bok”.