Caption: "The great value of Suctonius' account of the Lives of the Twelve Roman Emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, lies in the information it Show moreCaption: "The great value of Suctonius' account of the Lives of the Twelve Roman Emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, lies in the information it gives on the manners and customs of that period. This work, written about the year 100 A.D. is a racy biography, filled with anecdotes, gossip and scandal which has "influenced posterity's evaluation of his subjects." As secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, Suetonius no doubt has access to secret sources. He regarded the world with disillusioned eyes after discovering that many "idols had feet of clay." He gave us what he saw. Robert Estienne, in the year 1524, at the age of twenty-one, established his press in Paris. He was the great scholar in a famous family of printers, and a close personal friend, of his patron, Francis I, who gave him the title "Printer to the King." Francis frequently had to come to his friend's rescue when the troublesome theological censors ransacked his home and press. Associated with Estienne was the famous type cutter, Claude Garamond, to whom the italic type used in his book has been attributed. Daniel Berkeley Updike says of his types that they "...have a delightful unconventionality of design, free and spirited, yet noble; full of contrast and movement, yet with elegance and precision of line that marks them as French." Original Leaves from Famous Books Otto F. Ege Collection Show less
