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HERODOTUS (c.490 - c.425 B.C.). Histories, in Greek. Edited by Aldus Manutius (c.1452-1515). Venice: Aldus Manutius, September 1502.
First edition of Herodotus' history of the Persian Wars, one of the most important texts edited by the great scholar-printer-publisher Aldus Manutius. Herodotus is generally considered ‘the father of history’. Departing from the Homeric chronicle, ‘[h]e was the first to collect his materials systematically, to test their accuracy as far as he could, and arrange his story in such a way as to appeal to, as well as inform, his readers’ (PMM). His main theme, which is also the subject of the present work, was the struggle between Persia and Greece. The present publication was one of the first Greek works produced by the humanist printer Aldus Manutius, who had opened his publishing house in Venice in the same year. Aldus claims in the dedication that he corrected the text from multiple exemplars, and this is one of the few instances where such a claim by him is justified and can be verified. He was the first to have access to the 'Florentine' codices, where Valla had used the so-called Roman family of manuscripts for his translation. Adams H-394; PMM 41.
Folio (305 x 203mm). Greek, roman, and italic type. Aldine anchor device on title and verso of last leaf, 9- and 10-line initial spaces with guide-letters (small hole on first leaf touching a few letters on verso, various leaves strengthened in the gutter, some light marginal waterstaining and thumb-soiling). 18th-century vellum (lightly rubbed, stained). Provenance: stamp removed from title — pagination and occasional Greek and Latin annotations in a c.17th-century hand.
First edition of Herodotus' history of the Persian Wars, one of the most important texts edited by the great scholar-printer-publisher Aldus Manutius. Herodotus is generally considered ‘the father of history’. Departing from the Homeric chronicle, ‘[h]e was the first to collect his materials systematically, to test their accuracy as far as he could, and arrange his story in such a way as to appeal to, as well as inform, his readers’ (PMM). His main theme, which is also the subject of the present work, was the struggle between Persia and Greece. The present publication was one of the first Greek works produced by the humanist printer Aldus Manutius, who had opened his publishing house in Venice in the same year. Aldus claims in the dedication that he corrected the text from multiple exemplars, and this is one of the few instances where such a claim by him is justified and can be verified. He was the first to have access to the 'Florentine' codices, where Valla had used the so-called Roman family of manuscripts for his translation. Adams H-394; PMM 41.
Folio (305 x 203mm). Greek, roman, and italic type. Aldine anchor device on title and verso of last leaf, 9- and 10-line initial spaces with guide-letters (small hole on first leaf touching a few letters on verso, various leaves strengthened in the gutter, some light marginal waterstaining and thumb-soiling). 18th-century vellum (lightly rubbed, stained). Provenance: stamp removed from title — pagination and occasional Greek and Latin annotations in a c.17th-century hand.
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