Antiquitatum Romanarum corpus absolutissimum.

Notes

The final edition of the Antiquitatum Romanarum of Johannes Rosinus, a compendium of Classical Rome and Roman antiquities, detailing the topography of Rome and the division of the population, its sacred and private remains, its legal system, and its warfare. First published in 1583, the book proved very popular, with various editions under different editors until this edition of 1743, never since republished.
The binding here is of particular note, the loss of the spine backing revealing the use of earlier rubricated vellum manuscript strips as binding supports. Such a complete view of the under structure of a book's spine is usually only the case where the volume in question is dilapidated beyond use, but not so here, with the cords strong and thus the covers still firm and functional.
Provenance: the Dutch lawyer, politician and antiquary Charles Clément Roemers 1748-1838, with his booklabel to the front pastedown. A lawyer by training, Roemers served as Alderman in Maastricht in the 1770s and 1780s. A beneficiary of the French Revolution, he acted as Agent National for Maastricht in 1794-95, was then elected as a member of the Council of 500 in 1797, serving as a member of the council and its successor, the Corps Législatif, for 15 years. An admirer of Napoleon - he published poems in Latin praising the emperor - Roemer was rewarded for his service with the title of a baron of the Empire and was appointed to the Légion d'honneur. With Napoleon's fall his pro-French sympathies ensured he was denied further public roles, yet he still died a wealthy man, with various properties and a library of around 1,500 books, particularly rich in Roman and New Latin literature, and in histories.