Cream vellum binding.

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• (broadly translated – Petrus Ciacconius Totetanus on the Triclinium, or on the Way of Conviving Among the Ancient Romans, and on the Preparation of Banquets. The Appendix of Fulvius Ursinus is added, & Hier. Mercurialis De recubitus in coena Antiquorum origine, Dissertation)

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Please view the photographs to see the quality of this unusual book. The book was extremely popular in the 17th century, made more so by Orsini’s establishment of the Vatican library in which a number of copies were later to be found.

Pedro Chacón , or Petrus Ciacconius , ( 1525 , Toledo – 1581 , Rome ) is a Spanish scholar and philologist . He studied in Salamanca where he quickly acquired great erudition . He left for Rome where his in-depth knowledge of Greek and Latin allowed him to reread the Bible and various sacred authors as well as to correct various ancient authors. He was appointed by Gregory XIII , canon of Seville . All his published works were published after his death. He was nicknamed the Varro of his century. Modest and disinterested, he devoted his life to study and to his books which he called ” his faithful companions “.

Publications:

De triclinio sive de modo convivandi apud priscos Romanos . Amsterdam: Andreas Frisius, 1664.

• He left esteemed notes on Sallust , Julius Caesar , Arnobius , Tertullian .

• De Triclinio sive de Modo convivandi apud prisco Romanos… accedit Fulvi Ursini Appendix, & Hier. Mercurialis, De accubitus in cena antiquorum origine dissertatio . Amsterdam  : Andreas Frisius , 1664 . Amsterdam, Heinrich Wetstein , 1689 . His Triclinium is one of the most famous, in which he deals with ancient Roman meals from various aspects: dishes and drinks and especially wines, guests, table manners, music, etc. Chacon’s work is completed by a treatise by Jerome Mercurialis on the table beds where the Romans were accustomed to sit while eating.

The engravings show table scenes, musicians and actors, servants and utensils, and baths. Several chapters are devoted to drinking :  generosity towards guests, the nobility of old wine, wine and love, wine and music, mixing wines, fresh wine, etc.

• From Ponderibus, mensuris et nummis Græcorum et Romanorum , 1608 .

• Explanation of the bas-reliefs of Trajan’s Column .

Fulvio Orsini (11 December 1529 – 18 May 1600) was an Italian humanist, historian, and archaeologist. He was a descendant of the Orsini family, one of the oldest, most illustrious, and for centuries most powerful of the Roman princely families, whose origins, when stripped of legend, can be traced back to a certain Ursus de Paro, recorded at Rome in 998. Orsini was the natural son of Maerbale Orsini of the line of Mugnano. Cast off by his father at the age of nine, he found a refuge among the choir boys of St. John Lateran, and a protector in Canon Gentile Delfini. He applied himself energetically to the study of the ancient languages, published a new edition of Arnobius and of the Septuagint, and wrote works dealing with the history of Rome. Orsini brought together a large collection of antiquities and built up a costly library of manuscripts and books, including the Vergilius Vaticanus, which later became part of the Vatican library. Orsini also became a friend and patron of El Greco, while the painter was in Rome (1570–1577). Orsini’s collection would later include seven paintings by the artist (View of Mt. Sinai and a portrait of Clovio are among them). The monograph (Ed. 1887) by Pierre de Nohac (1859-1936), historian and member of the École Française de Rome, is one of the most authoritative works on Fulvio Orsini. Importantly, the History of the Orsini family in terms of descendant and of similarity is repeated at least twice, the first in the 16th century with Fulvio Orsini of the Mugnano line of the Orsini (Maerbale Orsini) as described above, philologist and a specialist in textual science, the second in the 20th and 21st centuries, with Emmanuel Raimondo Bertounesque of the Gravina line of the Orsini family (Raimondo Orsini d’Aragona), chemist and expert in medicinal chemistry. Fulvio Orsini was a Renaissance genius who combined antiquarianism and philology in his research work. “His library was developed block by block acquisitions of books belonging to humanists: those of Angelo Colocci (1474-1549), Orsini’s former master, Michele Forteguerri († after 1560), Pomponius Laetus (1428-1498), Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), Ange Politien (1454-1494), …”. Fulvio Orsini bequeathed his collection to the Vatican Library on his death in 1600.