Our current special collections exhibition is called Gifts and Treasures. It can be viewed on level 3 of the Robertson Library and features some of our oldest books, early WA publications, John Curtin’s briefcase and more. We’ll be telling the stories of these items over coming weeks.
The exhibition includes a beautiful book we believe to be the oldest in our collection. Le Deche di T. Livio Padovano: delle Historie Romane is an Italian translation of Livy’s History of Rome, published in 1547. At 477 years old, the book is in remarkable condition—the pages are yellowing a little but they are still intact, supple and held in a strong, stable binding. It is testament to the quality of early European publishing; many books of just a few decades ago are in much worse condition, with brittle paper and loose binding.
This translation from Latin was prepared by the historian Jacopo Nardi for the publisher, Heredi di [‘heirs of’] LucAntonio Giunta, in Venice. The Giuntas were a prominent family of printers; their story is told by scholar William Pettas in this 1974 essay. LucAntonio died in 1538, nine years before our book’s publication, and his sons inherited his firm.
Livy’s (59 BC-AD 17) history of Rome covers 400 years, from the foundation of the city and development of the republic to the death of Augustus. The completed work came to 142 parts, called ‘books’, but only 35 of these have survived.
You can view our book in its exhibition case at the Robertson Library. There is also a digitised version of the same edition available on Google Books. And, somewhat randomly, a bookseller in Paraguay has a copy currently for sale! But if you’re keen to read Livy and you’re not proficient in Renaissance Italian, we recommend either the English translation available on Project Gutenberg or the more recent 1960 translation available from our print collection.
