![ARISTOTELES (384-322 B.C.). Problemata. (Text beginning: Cur exuperantiae). Translated by Theodorus Gaza. With 'De vita Aristotelis'. Mantua: Johannes Vurster and Johannes Baumeister, [c. 1473].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16019_0114_002(aristoteles_problemata_translated_by_theodorus_gaza_with_de_vita_arist012038).jpg?w=1)
![ARISTOTELES (384-322 B.C.). Problemata. (Text beginning: Cur exuperantiae). Translated by Theodorus Gaza. With 'De vita Aristotelis'. Mantua: Johannes Vurster and Johannes Baumeister, [c. 1473].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16019_0114_001(aristoteles_problemata_translated_by_theodorus_gaza_with_de_vita_arist012038).jpg?w=1)
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ARISTOTELES (384-322 B.C.). Problemata. (Text beginning: Cur exuperantiae). Translated by Theodorus Gaza. With 'De vita Aristotelis'. Mantua: Johannes Vurster and Johannes Baumeister, [c. 1473].
The very rare first edition of Aristotle’s Problemata, a wide-margined copy preserving early quiring and pin holes. The Problemata are a collection of scientific dissertations in the form of questions and answers ascribed to Aristotle in 20 chapters. Theodorus Gaza, this text's translator, was born at Thessalonica. On the capture of his native city by the Turks in 1430 he fled to Italy. During a three-year residence in Mantua he studied under Vittorino da Feltre and became proficient in Latin. He supported himself by giving lessons in Greek, and by copying manuscripts of the ancient classics. In 1447 he became professor of Greek in the newly founded university of Ferrara, and his presence there and fame helped attract students from all parts of Italy. His translations into Latin were numerous and include the Historia plantarum of Theophrastus and the homilies of John Chrysostom. Victor Scholderer notes that this undated Aristotle may or may not have preceded Vurster's first edition of Petrus de Albano's Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum et medicorum which is dated 1472. It cannot be earlier than 1472, as that was the year in which the Bolognese archetype of Vurster's small roman was introduced (BMC VII, p. xlvi). ISTC locates only one copy in the British Isles (The British Library). HCR 1729; GW 2452; BMC VII 929; ISTC ia01030000; Goff A-1030.
Quarto (294 x 214mm). 95 leaves (of 96, without first blank). Initials in red or blue, early quiring preserved, 13th-century fragments of manuscript on vellum reused as quire guards, blank bifolium bound at end with 25 lines of manuscript text in Latin starting ‘De balneo borrethi’ (occasional spotting, soiling and staining). Contemporary pink-stained vellum over bevelled wooden boards, clasps sometime renewed, traces of hasp hole (spine with a few cracks, the whole sometime refurbished, without metal furniture, rubbed). Provenance: Sigmaringen, Fürstlich Hohenzollernsche Hofbibliothek
The very rare first edition of Aristotle’s Problemata, a wide-margined copy preserving early quiring and pin holes. The Problemata are a collection of scientific dissertations in the form of questions and answers ascribed to Aristotle in 20 chapters. Theodorus Gaza, this text's translator, was born at Thessalonica. On the capture of his native city by the Turks in 1430 he fled to Italy. During a three-year residence in Mantua he studied under Vittorino da Feltre and became proficient in Latin. He supported himself by giving lessons in Greek, and by copying manuscripts of the ancient classics. In 1447 he became professor of Greek in the newly founded university of Ferrara, and his presence there and fame helped attract students from all parts of Italy. His translations into Latin were numerous and include the Historia plantarum of Theophrastus and the homilies of John Chrysostom. Victor Scholderer notes that this undated Aristotle may or may not have preceded Vurster's first edition of Petrus de Albano's Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum et medicorum which is dated 1472. It cannot be earlier than 1472, as that was the year in which the Bolognese archetype of Vurster's small roman was introduced (BMC VII, p. xlvi). ISTC locates only one copy in the British Isles (The British Library). HCR 1729; GW 2452; BMC VII 929; ISTC ia01030000; Goff A-1030.
Quarto (294 x 214mm). 95 leaves (of 96, without first blank). Initials in red or blue, early quiring preserved, 13th-century fragments of manuscript on vellum reused as quire guards, blank bifolium bound at end with 25 lines of manuscript text in Latin starting ‘De balneo borrethi’ (occasional spotting, soiling and staining). Contemporary pink-stained vellum over bevelled wooden boards, clasps sometime renewed, traces of hasp hole (spine with a few cracks, the whole sometime refurbished, without metal furniture, rubbed). Provenance: Sigmaringen, Fürstlich Hohenzollernsche Hofbibliothek
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