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Details
STRABO (64/63 B.C.-c. 25 A.D.). De situ orbis, in Greek. Edited by Benedictus Tyrrhenus. Venice: Andreas Torresanus at the Aldine Press, November 1516.
2° (310 x 218mm). Aldine device on first and final leaf, woodcut headpieces, typographical headings and 10- or 11-line woodcut vine-work initials opening each book printed in red, Aldine device on title and final verso. (Small repair on title, light dampstaining, e1 with slight press damage.) Early limp vellum, author's name lettered along spine and fore-edge (light soiling, small repairs to cover, lacking ties, front cover bowed). Provenance: Giannalisa Feltrinelli (booklabel and blindstamp on front endpaper, sold Christie's, 7 October 1997, lot 102, £20,700).
EDITIO PRINCEPS of one of the earliest and most important scientific treatises of historical geography. Strabo's only surviving work, the Geography constituted the first attempt at a unified treatise of geographical knowledge. The work surveys the topography, history and political characteristics of the principal regions of the Roman world. In bringing up to date the work of the first systematic geographer, Erastothenes (3rd century B.C.), whose writings are now lost, Strabo relied on other Greek sources but paid scant attention to recent Roman records. His treatise brought together philosophy, political theory, geology, mathematics, and history. Following Erastothenes, he presented the world as a single ocean-girt landmass on the northern half of a sphere, immobile within a revolving universe. His descriptions of the Mediterranean regions, Asia Minor and Egypt are excellent, while those of Gaul, Britain and Greece are weaker (the errors relating to his native country may have been due to his excessive veneration of Homer, whose authority he extended to geography). That Strabo's geography was unknown to the Romans, even to Pliny the Elder, in spite of his expressed wish that it be read by the statesmen and rulers of the Empire, is evidence that it may have been published far from Rome. The work was not generally known until the 5th century, but came to be the standard geographical reference work during the Middle Ages. This first edition in Greek was encouraged by Jean Grolier, who wrote to Torresanus on the death of Aldus in 1515 urging him to publish it and other texts in danger of disparition (cf. Wilson, p. 156). Adams S-1903; Ahmanson-Murphy 149; Hoffmann III, 453; Renouard Alde, 77:7.
2° (310 x 218mm). Aldine device on first and final leaf, woodcut headpieces, typographical headings and 10- or 11-line woodcut vine-work initials opening each book printed in red, Aldine device on title and final verso. (Small repair on title, light dampstaining, e1 with slight press damage.) Early limp vellum, author's name lettered along spine and fore-edge (light soiling, small repairs to cover, lacking ties, front cover bowed). Provenance: Giannalisa Feltrinelli (booklabel and blindstamp on front endpaper, sold Christie's, 7 October 1997, lot 102, £20,700).
EDITIO PRINCEPS of one of the earliest and most important scientific treatises of historical geography. Strabo's only surviving work, the Geography constituted the first attempt at a unified treatise of geographical knowledge. The work surveys the topography, history and political characteristics of the principal regions of the Roman world. In bringing up to date the work of the first systematic geographer, Erastothenes (3rd century B.C.), whose writings are now lost, Strabo relied on other Greek sources but paid scant attention to recent Roman records. His treatise brought together philosophy, political theory, geology, mathematics, and history. Following Erastothenes, he presented the world as a single ocean-girt landmass on the northern half of a sphere, immobile within a revolving universe. His descriptions of the Mediterranean regions, Asia Minor and Egypt are excellent, while those of Gaul, Britain and Greece are weaker (the errors relating to his native country may have been due to his excessive veneration of Homer, whose authority he extended to geography). That Strabo's geography was unknown to the Romans, even to Pliny the Elder, in spite of his expressed wish that it be read by the statesmen and rulers of the Empire, is evidence that it may have been published far from Rome. The work was not generally known until the 5th century, but came to be the standard geographical reference work during the Middle Ages. This first edition in Greek was encouraged by Jean Grolier, who wrote to Torresanus on the death of Aldus in 1515 urging him to publish it and other texts in danger of disparition (cf. Wilson, p. 156). Adams S-1903; Ahmanson-Murphy 149; Hoffmann III, 453; Renouard Alde, 77:7.
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