[Anvil Press] Oratio de Hominis Dignitate

Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Oratio de hominis dignitate. Lexington. KY: 1953. One of 225 copies set in Blumenthal's Spiral type for the Latin text and ATF Garamond for the English, printed on Kelmscott paper. One of the few Victor Hammer books set in Roman. Text in double columns in both Latin and English. Eugenio Garin's edition of the Latin text with the English translation by Elizabeth Livermore Forbes. Postface by Paul Oskar Kristeller. Full cream paper, with white paper label with red lettering on the spine. Fore and bottom edges uncut, endpapers with printer's device as a watermark on the paste-downs. Measures approx. 8.75" x 12". Boards with some light spotting and browning. Holbrook 16 (Anvil Press).

Selected as one of the hundred fine press books featured in the Grolier Club's "Century for the Century". The first book of the Anvil Press. 

Loosely inserted is a booklet printed on thick handmade paper bearing Hammer's name and printer's mark on the front cover, and his metal-cut engraving of Joan of Arc tipped-in. The rear of the booklet reads "Jeanne d'Arc / (a print from the Hammer collection) / engraving".