Details
January 1501 - [not before June 1502] - June 1504
POETAE CHRISTIANI VETERES -- PRUDENTIUS (348 - after 405). Opera. Ed. Aldo Manuzio. -PROSPER of Aquitaine (ca. 390 - ca. 463). Epigrammata super Augustini sententias. -JOHN OF DAMASCUS (ca. 675 - ca. 749, St.) & COSMAS MELODUS (b. ca. 700). Hymni et Cantica, Gk. and Lat. -And other short works, Gk. and Lat. -- SEDULIUS Scotus (fl. 9th cent.) Mirabilium divinorum libri quatuor carmine heroico. -JUVENCUS (fl. early-4th cent.) De Evangelica historia. -ARATOR (ca. 490 - ca. 560). Historiae Apostolicae. -PROBA FALCONIA (4th century). Cento ex Virgilio de novo et veteri testamento. -SULPICIUS SEVERUS (ca. 363 - ca. 420). De vita et miraculis S. Martini. -Homerocentra, hoc est centones ex Homero, Gk. and Lat. Ed. Piero Candido. -And shorter works. -- GREGORY of Nazianzus (329-389, St.) Carmina, Gk. and Lat. -Historia evangelii secundum Ioannem, Gk. and Lat. Super-chancery 4° (205 x 145mm). 3 volumes. Same collation for vols. 1 and 3 as UCLA copy, for vol. 2 as Marciana copy. COMPLETE: 234; 293 (without final blank); 234 leaves. Roman type 10:82, greek 3:84. 36-37 lines. Printer's woodcut device in two sizes (Fletcher 1 in vol. 2, Fletcher f1 vol. 3). (Last leaf of vol. 1 from another copy, fo. A1 in vol. 3 also, some stains.)
PREFACE: Aldus wrote two dedications to Daniele Clario for vol. 1, another for vol. 2, an explanatory note to the reader in vol. 1, and three brief notes in vol. 3. He decided to publish the Christian poets, so that children may learn sound doctrine rather than pagan fables and grow up good and wise. He explains his complicated system of imposition and interleaving the Greek and Latin sheets to produce parallel text of the original and the translation, and how this inevitably leaves two facing blank pages in the middle of each quire; these he has decided to fill with other works. In the Gregorius Nazianzenus (vol. 3) he has used them for the Gospel of St. John, its continuous text therefore being dispersed throughout the volume. However, the Greek and Latin versions together being too long for the purpose, it is left incomplete and he promises to finish it by the same method in the middle of the quires of a planned bilingual edition of Nonnus Panopolitanus's verse paraphrase of the fourth Gospel. The Greek was already printed three years earlier [1501], but until now he has been too busy to do the Latin translation. [This projected vol. 4 of Poetae Christiani Veteres was never realised, but see Renouard 261:12 and Laurenziana 53 for the survival of the Greek sheets.]
BINDING: 19th-century English brown morocco gilt, edges gilt (front joint of vol. 2 broken). PROVENANCE: The Prudentius in vol. 1 is finely rubricated, presumably in France, its title inscribed Ex Libris Oratorii Gallicani; the Arator (vol. 2) inscribed Est congregationis Casinensis; Charles J. Crawford D.D. (armorial bkplt. in all 3 vols.)
FIRST EDITION of the poetry of John Damascenus, Gregorius Nazianzenus, and several others. FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE ALDINE DOLPHIN-AND-ANCHOR DEVICE (vol. 2). The emblem is first recorded in the last quarter of the first century A.D., on gold and silver Roman coins in the reigns of emperors Vespasian and Domitian. It was illustrated in Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (see lot 20), explained by the motto festina lente. This sentiment of making haste slowly suits the activities of a scholar-printer well and the device was employed throughout the existence of the Aldine press; it was (and is) also widely imitated. THIS ALDINE COLLECTION OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN POETS IS EXTREMELY RARE, ESPECIALLY COMPLETE SETS AND IN GOOD CONDITION. Proctor 12761, 12778, 12801; Hoffmann II, 434 and 175; Dionisotti & Orlandi XXII-XXIII, LIII; Murphy 31, 46a, 67; Sansoviniana 53, 96; Laurenziana 42, 61, 86; R 24:1, 46:4
POETAE CHRISTIANI VETERES -- PRUDENTIUS (348 - after 405). Opera. Ed. Aldo Manuzio. -PROSPER of Aquitaine (ca. 390 - ca. 463). Epigrammata super Augustini sententias. -JOHN OF DAMASCUS (ca. 675 - ca. 749, St.) & COSMAS MELODUS (b. ca. 700). Hymni et Cantica, Gk. and Lat. -And other short works, Gk. and Lat. -- SEDULIUS Scotus (fl. 9th cent.) Mirabilium divinorum libri quatuor carmine heroico. -JUVENCUS (fl. early-4th cent.) De Evangelica historia. -ARATOR (ca. 490 - ca. 560). Historiae Apostolicae. -PROBA FALCONIA (4th century). Cento ex Virgilio de novo et veteri testamento. -SULPICIUS SEVERUS (ca. 363 - ca. 420). De vita et miraculis S. Martini. -Homerocentra, hoc est centones ex Homero, Gk. and Lat. Ed. Piero Candido. -And shorter works. -- GREGORY of Nazianzus (329-389, St.) Carmina, Gk. and Lat. -Historia evangelii secundum Ioannem, Gk. and Lat. Super-chancery 4° (205 x 145mm). 3 volumes. Same collation for vols. 1 and 3 as UCLA copy, for vol. 2 as Marciana copy. COMPLETE: 234; 293 (without final blank); 234 leaves. Roman type 10:82, greek 3:84. 36-37 lines. Printer's woodcut device in two sizes (Fletcher 1 in vol. 2, Fletcher f1 vol. 3). (Last leaf of vol. 1 from another copy, fo. A1 in vol. 3 also, some stains.)
PREFACE: Aldus wrote two dedications to Daniele Clario for vol. 1, another for vol. 2, an explanatory note to the reader in vol. 1, and three brief notes in vol. 3. He decided to publish the Christian poets, so that children may learn sound doctrine rather than pagan fables and grow up good and wise. He explains his complicated system of imposition and interleaving the Greek and Latin sheets to produce parallel text of the original and the translation, and how this inevitably leaves two facing blank pages in the middle of each quire; these he has decided to fill with other works. In the Gregorius Nazianzenus (vol. 3) he has used them for the Gospel of St. John, its continuous text therefore being dispersed throughout the volume. However, the Greek and Latin versions together being too long for the purpose, it is left incomplete and he promises to finish it by the same method in the middle of the quires of a planned bilingual edition of Nonnus Panopolitanus's verse paraphrase of the fourth Gospel. The Greek was already printed three years earlier [1501], but until now he has been too busy to do the Latin translation. [This projected vol. 4 of Poetae Christiani Veteres was never realised, but see Renouard 261:12 and Laurenziana 53 for the survival of the Greek sheets.]
BINDING: 19th-century English brown morocco gilt, edges gilt (front joint of vol. 2 broken). PROVENANCE: The Prudentius in vol. 1 is finely rubricated, presumably in France, its title inscribed Ex Libris Oratorii Gallicani; the Arator (vol. 2) inscribed Est congregationis Casinensis; Charles J. Crawford D.D. (armorial bkplt. in all 3 vols.)
FIRST EDITION of the poetry of John Damascenus, Gregorius Nazianzenus, and several others. FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE ALDINE DOLPHIN-AND-ANCHOR DEVICE (vol. 2). The emblem is first recorded in the last quarter of the first century A.D., on gold and silver Roman coins in the reigns of emperors Vespasian and Domitian. It was illustrated in Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (see lot 20), explained by the motto festina lente. This sentiment of making haste slowly suits the activities of a scholar-printer well and the device was employed throughout the existence of the Aldine press; it was (and is) also widely imitated. THIS ALDINE COLLECTION OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN POETS IS EXTREMELY RARE, ESPECIALLY COMPLETE SETS AND IN GOOD CONDITION. Proctor 12761, 12778, 12801; Hoffmann II, 434 and 175; Dionisotti & Orlandi XXII-XXIII, LIII; Murphy 31, 46a, 67; Sansoviniana 53, 96; Laurenziana 42, 61, 86; R 24:1, 46:4