LACTANCE. De divinis institutionibus. De ira Dei. De opificio Dei. De phoenice carmen. Rome, Konrad Sweynheym & Arnold Pannartz at Pietro de' Massimi, 1468. In-folio of [218] ff. (of 220) with 38 long lines, signed. *12, 1-1110 128 13-1610 1712 18-2010 218, in Roman characters with quotations in Greek; brown morocco, large fleur-de-lys at the corners, royal arms of France in the centre, spine decorated with fleurs-de-lys, modern slipcase (19th century binding). Second edition of Lactantius, published in Rome by Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheim, the two German printers who introduced printing to Italy, first in the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco, in Lazio - where they published four works including, in 1465, the editio princeps of Lactantius, which is the first explicitly dated edition; then in Rome, from 1467, where Francesco and Pietro de' Massimi made their palace available to them. The Roman edition is as rare as the Subiaco edition, according to Brunet. It was followed by a third edition, published in Rome by the same printers in 1470. This is the second book printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz. The Greek font used in this edition differs from that of the Subiaco edition. The edition is augmented by Lactantius's poem on the Phoenix, extracts from Ovid's Metamorphoses and Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, and Venantius Fortunatus's Easter hymn Salve festa dies. These passages from the Divine Comedy make the Lactantius of 1468 the first book in which a text by Dante is printed. "It is hardly surprising that Lactantius was one of the first authors to be printed in Italy. This third-century teacher of the art of oratory, who was converted and persecuted for his faith, wanted to show that Christianity offered a higher ideal than that of the philosophers. Highly regarded in the Middle Ages, he was regarded by the humanists as a Christian Cicero". (BnF Essentiels). A copy entirely rubricated in red and blue, whose wide margins include abundant contemporary handwritten annotations, in the hand of Vasino Malabaila, abbot of San Mauro Torinese, originally from Asti, with bookplate and mention of purchase in Rome in 1498 in a final handwritten subscription. From the Charles Filippi library, with bookplate. Without the first and last blank leaves *1 (= f. [1]) and 218 (= f. [220]), which are almost always missing. Minor spotting and scuffing to boards. HC 9807 - Goff L-2 - IGI 5620 - Pr. 3291 - Pell. 6985. - Pol. 4507 - BMC, IV, 4 - Brunet, III, 735.