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PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
PINDAR (c.522-c.443 BCE). Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia, in Greek. Edited by Aldus Manutius. Venice: Aldus Manutius and Andreas Torresanus, January 1513.
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PINDAR (c.522-c.443 BCE). Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia, in Greek. Edited by Aldus Manutius. Venice: Aldus Manutius and Andreas Torresanus, January 1513.
The editio princeps of Pindar, “the Prince of Poets” (Quintillian 10.1.61). Pindar was “the brightest star in the Alexandrian canon ... and his influence on moderns such as Goethe and Foscolo cannot be overemphasized” (The Greek Book). This “particularly elegant edition” combines Aldus’s portable octavo format with his attractive large Greek typeface (Fletcher). While Aldus’s text of the notoriously difficult poet has been criticized for its editorial faults, it nevertheless served as the basis for most subsequent editions until the 19th century. Not least among this edition's “inviting curious features” (Bauer) is the surreptitious “signature” on p. 62, where in place of a?d? Aldus has printed ??d?—resulting in a verse that translates as: “Zeus, grant the sweet good fortune of happiness to Aldo!” This edition, dedicated to his close friend Navagero (for whom a copy on vellum was printed, now in the Rylands library) was his first after a four-year hiatus due to War of the League of Cambrai. It also contains the editio princeps of Lycophron, with second editions of Callimachus and Dionysius Periegetis. Ahmanson-Murphy 92; Clemons and Fletcher 46; Fletcher p. 53; Renouard Alde, 64:9. See The Greek Book 5; Bauer, “Problems in the Aldine Pindar” in Princeton University Library Chronicle vol. 76, no. 3; Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy, p. 147.
Octavo (152 x 94mm). Greek and Roman types. Ruled, woodcut Aldine device on title, with final blank (final leaf of gathering 19 mistakenly bound at the beginning). 18th-century French green morocco gilt, edges gilt. Provenance: deleted early inscription on flyleaf verso – Melun, Augustinian convent (effaced 17th-century inscription: “Biblioth. Aug. Maj. Conv. Megludien") – Paul Lecène (1878-1929, a French surgeon; bookplate) – F. Gentili de Giuseppe (d.1940s, by descent to:) – Adriana Raphaël Salem (founder of the Salem Prize in mathematics; monogram bookplate).
The editio princeps of Pindar, “the Prince of Poets” (Quintillian 10.1.61). Pindar was “the brightest star in the Alexandrian canon ... and his influence on moderns such as Goethe and Foscolo cannot be overemphasized” (The Greek Book). This “particularly elegant edition” combines Aldus’s portable octavo format with his attractive large Greek typeface (Fletcher). While Aldus’s text of the notoriously difficult poet has been criticized for its editorial faults, it nevertheless served as the basis for most subsequent editions until the 19th century. Not least among this edition's “inviting curious features” (Bauer) is the surreptitious “signature” on p. 62, where in place of a?d? Aldus has printed ??d?—resulting in a verse that translates as: “Zeus, grant the sweet good fortune of happiness to Aldo!” This edition, dedicated to his close friend Navagero (for whom a copy on vellum was printed, now in the Rylands library) was his first after a four-year hiatus due to War of the League of Cambrai. It also contains the editio princeps of Lycophron, with second editions of Callimachus and Dionysius Periegetis. Ahmanson-Murphy 92; Clemons and Fletcher 46; Fletcher p. 53; Renouard Alde, 64:9. See The Greek Book 5; Bauer, “Problems in the Aldine Pindar” in Princeton University Library Chronicle vol. 76, no. 3; Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy, p. 147.
Octavo (152 x 94mm). Greek and Roman types. Ruled, woodcut Aldine device on title, with final blank (final leaf of gathering 19 mistakenly bound at the beginning). 18th-century French green morocco gilt, edges gilt. Provenance: deleted early inscription on flyleaf verso – Melun, Augustinian convent (effaced 17th-century inscription: “Biblioth. Aug. Maj. Conv. Megludien") – Paul Lecène (1878-1929, a French surgeon; bookplate) – F. Gentili de Giuseppe (d.1940s, by descent to:) – Adriana Raphaël Salem (founder of the Salem Prize in mathematics; monogram bookplate).