SENEQUE De Benefizii. Tradotto in volgar Fiorentino da M. Benedett Varchi. Di nuovo ristampato con la vita dell’autore.

EDIT16, CNCE 28440 ; BM, Italian, 621 ; Graesse, VI, 356.

First edition in Italian containing the de Benefizii and the life of Seneca, bound for King Henry III.

It contains for the first time the life of the author written in Latin by Xicone Polentone and translated into Florentine by Giovanni di Tante. The Italian translation of De beneficiis was written by Benedetto Varchi in 1554. He dedicated it to Eleonora de Toledo, Duchess of Florence and wife of Cosimo I de Medici. The translation achieved a broad circulation, reprinted in Venice by Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari in 1564, and reprinted again in 1574. 

Seneca’s Benefizii, written between 56 and 64, is a treatise divided into seven books. The Roman philosopher addresses his friend, Aebutius Liberali, and gives a Stoic analysis of the ethical notions of gratitude, ingratitude and benefit, as well as numerous proposals for granting, receiving and returning benefits. It is not only the longest of Seneca’s works dealing with a single subject, but also the only complete work on what we now call ‘gift exchange’ to have survived from antiquity. Benefits were of great personal importance to Seneca, who remarked in one of his last letters that philosophy taught above all how to deserve and return benefits well.

Henri III’s copy 

This copy has a very luxurious binding in hazelnut morocco, certainly made by the workshop of Nicolas Eve, the King’s bookbinder 1578-1579 (see Fabienne Le Bars, reliures.bnf, for a binding in orange morocco with fleurs-de-lis).

At the court of Henry III, Seneca was read : “Mais précisément en Pologne, Henri avait resserré son amitié avec Guy Faur de Pibrac, son chancelier là-bas, qui allait, philologue lui-même, l’initier à la philosophie du moraliste latin [Sénèque]. … Depuis l’avènement d’Henri, Monsieur de Pibrac était devenu l’un des grands sénécisants du royaume et il paraît que la perte de son exemplaire personnel de Sénèque, annoté patiemment de sa main, fut grande et irréparable. […] En 1583, le seigneur Pressac offre à Henri du Sénèque à son tour, et, lui aussi, en français.” (Sénèque, lecture royale sous le dernier Valois François Préchac. In: Bulletin de l’Association Guillaume Budé : Lettres d’humanité, n°9, mars 1950, pages 185-205).

“Henri III aimait beaucoup les livres, comme tous les Valois, et fit travailler pour lui Nicolas et Clovis Eve” (OHR).

Henri III, King of France (1551-1589), was the recipient of many presentation copies, often richly decorated with his coat of arms or emblems. He also commissioned the first bindings for the Order of the Holy Spirit, of which he was the founder, in December 1578. He also had a personal library, for which he favoured bindings with fleur-de-lys and foliate spandrels, in addition to simple bindings. 

Henri III (1551-1589), son of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis, was elected King of Poland in 1573 and crowned King of France in 1573. The last king of the Valois dynasty, he was assassinated in 1589.

Small stains on the binding, oxidised silver decoration.