Beschreibung:

BESSARION (Johannes Basilius of Trebizond, 1403-1472, Cardinal). Adversus calumniatorem Platonis . - Correctio librorum Platonis de legibus Georgio Trapezuntio interprete . - De natura et arte . Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, [before 28 August 1469]. Median 2° (280 x 197mm). Collation: [1 8 2 6 3-17 10 18- 12 19-20 10 21 12 22 10 23-24 8 ] (1/1 blank, 1/2r chapter contents, 3/2r Adversus calumniatorem Platonis , books 1-2, 9/1r book 3, 14/1r book 4, 18/12v Correctio librorum Platonis de Legibus Georgio Trapezuntio interprete , 23/2r De natura et arte adversus eundem Trapezuntium , 23/7-8 blank). 231 (of 234, without first and final 2 blank) leaves. 38 lines. Type: 2:115R, 115Gk, some spaces for Greek. 10-line initial opening text in red and blue with purple penwork decoration and extensions, 7-line initials opening subsequent books in red or blue, headings in red, chapter numbers in red in margins, paragraph marks alternating in red and blue. (A few small wormholes in first 2 and final 3 quires, some spotting and browning, marginal chapter numbers trimmed, faint dampstain at upper edge.) 18th-century blind-ruled sheep, gilt spine, speckled edges (label and head of spine chipped, minor scuffs, corners bumped). Provenance : early, neat text corrections, marginal notes in two early hands, pen-trials on 2 pages -- headlines, foliation and some paragraph marks added in a 17th-century Italian hand. FIRST EDITION of 'one of the most important texts in the history of Platonism' (J. Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance , p.215). Bessarion wrote the Adversus calumniatorem Platonis in response to a virulent attack -- brilliant and lunatic in equal measure -- on Plato by George of Trebizond, who condemned Platonism as heretical and immoral. In defending Plato Bessarion first provides a general exposition of Platonic philosophy. It was one of the earliest expositions on Platonism to appear in print, published well in advance of any of Plato's own works, and therefore contributed greatly to disseminating and popularising Platonic philosophy in the West. Indeed, 'Bessarion and his circle were, together with Marsilio Ficino, the chief conduits for the direct transmission of Platonic philosophy in the early Renaissance' (Hankins, p.233). Bessarion set out to reconcile Plato and Christianity, and his work exerted considerable influence on Ficino's own Platonic Theology , which he began the same year in which the Adversus calmniatorem Platonis was published. Bessarion saw Plato as a fore-runner of Christianity and argued that Plato was closer to Christianity than Aristotle, but he also conceded that some Platonic beliefs could not be reconciled to the faith, such as the pre-existence of the soul, and the notion that the heavens and heavenly bodies have souls. Bessarion's work was not merely a defense of Plato, but a defense of Greek heritage. One of his main strategies in countering Trebizond was to prove the deficiency of Latin translations of Plato's works, which necessarily resulted in western misconceptions. Included in this edition is Bessarion's detailed and stinging enumeration of the faults in Trebizond's own translation and commentary of Plato's Laws . Bessarion may have been instrumental in persuading the printers Sweynheym and Pannartz to set up a printing shop in Rome. The Adversus was published by 28 August 1469 (when Trebizond refers to it in a letter he wrote to Bessarion) in an edition of 300 copies. The Greek type used for many passages was Sweynheym and Pannartz's second; their first Greek type, the first full Greek fount, was left behind at Subiaco. Part of the printer's copy for this edition survives at Venice (Biblioteca Marciana MSS Z.228 (1671) and lat.VI 60. HC *3004; BMC IV, 7 (IB.17126); BSB-Ink B-404; CIBN B-357; GW 4183; Goff B-518.