February-June 1503

Details
February-June 1503

LUCIAN of Samosata (b. ca. 120 A.D.) Opera, Gk. -PHILOSTRATUS, Flavius (b. ca. 170 A.D.) Heroica, Gk -Vitae Sophistarum, Gk. -PHILOSTRATUS Lemnius the elder (b. ca. 191 A.D., nephew and son-in-law of Flavius). Icones, Gk. -PHILOSTRATUS Lemnius the younger (grandson of PL the elder). Icones, Gk. -CALLISTRATUS Sophista (3rd or 4th century A.D.) Descriptiones, Gk. Super-chancery 2° (308 x 200mm). Collation: \ka-v aa-dd\K8 εε. (title in Greek and Latin with 4-line epigram of Lucian's on his own work and woodcut device Fletcher no. 3, verso blank, text, εε1v-2r index and colophon dated February, εε2v blank); \kzz-mm\K8 νν6 (ζζ1r-υυ1r the earlier Icons, υυ1v-6v the later Icons, υυ6v-κκ5v Heroics, κκ5v-8v Descriptions, λλ1r-νν5v Lives of the Sophists, νν5v colophon dated June, νν6r index, νν6v dolphin-and-anchor device Fletcher f1). 288 leaves, paginated 1-571. Greek type 3:84, roman 10:82. 55 lines. Initial-spaces with guide-letters. (Wormhole in first 6 leaves slightly affecting device and text, marginal stain on title and towards the end.)

BINDING: 18th-century French blue-green morocco gilt, roll-tooled borders on sides, spine decorated in compartments with floral tools and stars, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, gold-blocked Aldine device added to the centre of the covers for Thorold by Storr of Grantham ca. 1825. PROVENANCE: Paris, Jesuits (title-inscr. washed out); Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831), binding-embellishment, Syston Park armorial and monogrammatic bookplates

SECOND EDITION IN GREEK of Lucian's Dialogues, printed from different -- and inferior -- manuscripts from those used for the editio princeps (Florence: Lorenzo di Alopa, 1496). Aldus or his anonymous editor did not consult his competitor's edition, and their own was not given a dedication. EDITIO PRINCEPS OF ALL PHILOSTRATEAN TEXTS AND CALLISTRATUS. Heroica is a dialogue concerned with the cult of Prosetilaos, commander of the Greeks before Troy; Flavius's "Sophists' Lives" is chiefly interesting for notices of the author's contemporaries. The works called Icones by the Philostrati of Lemnos are purported descriptions of pictures in a Neapolitan collection, in whose imitation Callistratus wrote his descriptions of fourteen statues; all three are of considerable importance for the study of classical art history. Isaac 12791; Adams L-1602; Hoffmann II, 536; Murphy 57; Sansoviniana 79-80; Laurenziana 75; R 39:3

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