Details
15 July 1498
ARISTOPHANES. Comoediae novem, Gk. With the scholia. Ed. Markos Mousouros. Super-chancery 2° (308 x 202mm). Same collation as Grenville copy (IB. 24470). 348 leaves, including the two blanks. Greek types 1:146 (text) and 2:114 (commentary), roman 2:114 (title, dedication, colophon). Mostly 41-42 lines of commentary surrounding varying numbers of lines of text. Woodcut floral and interlace headpieces and initials. (Short tear in ι6, no loss of text, light marginal dampstain at beginning.)
PREFACE: Aldus in his dedication to Daniele Clario, professor of Greek and Latin at Ragusa, Dalmatia, stresses that it is not possible to be learned without knowing the Greek philosophers, medical writers and mathematicians; one must not rely on the existing Latin translations of Aristotle, Galen and Euclid, because they are corrupt and incomplete. Now it is time to turn to fine literature and he sends him Aristophanes, the best guide to learning pure Attic. He reminds him that Theodore Gaza, when asked which Greek authors it would be most profitable for learners to read, answered: "only Aristophanes." From their correspondence, Clario is known to have held Aldine stock for sale at Ragusa
BINDING: 18th-century English calf, blind-panelled covers, spine gilt in compartments with small tools including the emblem of a crowned dolphin, red edges, (slight wear at joints). PROVENANCE: some early Greek and Latin manuscript marginalia, whose author's name has been erased from the top of the title-page; John Foxe (Archbishop of Wells, probably a nephew of Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester and keeper of the privy seal), who also owned a copy of the 1518 Froben edition of More's Utopia and Epigrammata with additional manuscript epigrams (Christie's 23rd June 1993 lot 170), his ownership inscriptions and motto on title, and below colophon Memorare novissima 1529 Sum Johannis Foxi et amicorum 29
EDITIO PRINCEPS of Plutus, Clouds, Frogs, Knights, Acharnians, Wasps, Birds, Peace, and Ecclesiazusae, nine of Aristophanes' eleven extant comedies. Aldus had to leave out a tenth, Lysistrata, because he could not obtain a manuscript of more than half of its text. Marcus Musurus of Crete was greatly admired by Erasmus and has been called the greatest philologist of modern Hellenism. In his preface the editor describes the complications of clearly arranging the scholia; there was barely enough time, many corrections had to be made in proof, and printer's errors were worse than Hydra's heads (see Wilson p. 149). The minimum price at publication was set at 2½ ducats, but the copy now at the City Library of Arezzo was purchased for two ducats only. FINE COPY. HC *1656; GW 2333; BMC V, 559; Goff A-958; IGI 790; Flodr 18:1 (Aristophanes); Essling 1163; Dionisotti & Orlandi XIV; Murphy 22; Babcock & Sosower 51; Geneva BPU 34; Sansoviniana 24; Laurenziana 26; Scapecchi 20; R 16:3
ARISTOPHANES. Comoediae novem, Gk. With the scholia. Ed. Markos Mousouros. Super-chancery 2° (308 x 202mm). Same collation as Grenville copy (IB. 24470). 348 leaves, including the two blanks. Greek types 1:146 (text) and 2:114 (commentary), roman 2:114 (title, dedication, colophon). Mostly 41-42 lines of commentary surrounding varying numbers of lines of text. Woodcut floral and interlace headpieces and initials. (Short tear in ι6, no loss of text, light marginal dampstain at beginning.)
PREFACE: Aldus in his dedication to Daniele Clario, professor of Greek and Latin at Ragusa, Dalmatia, stresses that it is not possible to be learned without knowing the Greek philosophers, medical writers and mathematicians; one must not rely on the existing Latin translations of Aristotle, Galen and Euclid, because they are corrupt and incomplete. Now it is time to turn to fine literature and he sends him Aristophanes, the best guide to learning pure Attic. He reminds him that Theodore Gaza, when asked which Greek authors it would be most profitable for learners to read, answered: "only Aristophanes." From their correspondence, Clario is known to have held Aldine stock for sale at Ragusa
BINDING: 18th-century English calf, blind-panelled covers, spine gilt in compartments with small tools including the emblem of a crowned dolphin, red edges, (slight wear at joints). PROVENANCE: some early Greek and Latin manuscript marginalia, whose author's name has been erased from the top of the title-page; John Foxe (Archbishop of Wells, probably a nephew of Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester and keeper of the privy seal), who also owned a copy of the 1518 Froben edition of More's Utopia and Epigrammata with additional manuscript epigrams (Christie's 23rd June 1993 lot 170), his ownership inscriptions and motto on title, and below colophon Memorare novissima 1529 Sum Johannis Foxi et amicorum 29
EDITIO PRINCEPS of Plutus, Clouds, Frogs, Knights, Acharnians, Wasps, Birds, Peace, and Ecclesiazusae, nine of Aristophanes' eleven extant comedies. Aldus had to leave out a tenth, Lysistrata, because he could not obtain a manuscript of more than half of its text. Marcus Musurus of Crete was greatly admired by Erasmus and has been called the greatest philologist of modern Hellenism. In his preface the editor describes the complications of clearly arranging the scholia; there was barely enough time, many corrections had to be made in proof, and printer's errors were worse than Hydra's heads (see Wilson p. 149). The minimum price at publication was set at 2½ ducats, but the copy now at the City Library of Arezzo was purchased for two ducats only. FINE COPY. HC *1656; GW 2333; BMC V, 559; Goff A-958; IGI 790; Flodr 18:1 (Aristophanes); Essling 1163; Dionisotti & Orlandi XIV; Murphy 22; Babcock & Sosower 51; Geneva BPU 34; Sansoviniana 24; Laurenziana 26; Scapecchi 20; R 16:3