PINDAR (522?-443 B.C.). [Odes]. Olympia. Pythia. Nemea. Isthmia . - CALLIMACHUS. Hymni . - DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES. De situ orbis . - LYCOPHRON. Alexandra, obscurum poema , in Greek. Edited by Aldus Manutius Venice: Aldus Manutius and his father-in-law Andreas Asulanus, January 1513. Aldine 8 o (156 x 91 mm). 187 leaves (of 188, without the final blank). Dedicatory letter to Andrea Navagero. Types: 1:80 Italic, 90 Greek, cut by Francesco Griffo. Woodcut anchor device on title. Initial spaces with guide letters, modern capitals supplied in alternating red and blue, opening initial in gold on blue ground. (Small wormhole in first 5 leaves, repaired marginal tear to 23/4 touching a letter, light foxing to a few leaves.) Crimson straight-grained morocco gilt, sides with border of roll-tooled interlocking circles framed by double fillets, smooth spine densely gilt and stippled, gilt edges, Greek key roll on turn-ins, yellow moiré silk endleaves, by FRANçOIS BOZéRIAN, signed ("Rel. p. Bozérian jeune") at foot of spine (extremities rubbed, small stain to upper cover). Provenance : William, Earl of Carysfort (1894 Elton Hall bookplate); Albert May Todd (bookplate, sale New York, Anderson Galleries, 22 October 1929). EDITIO PRINCEPS of Pindar's Odes and Lycophron's only surviving poem, second edition in Greek of Callimachus' Hymns and Dionysius Periegetis. Although his copy-texts were faulty, Aldus's edition served as the basis of most subsequent editions until the 19th century. "Pindar was such a famous name that there must have been demand for a printed text. He is, however, a difficult author, and it was not to be expected that the first editor would do much more than reproduce a current text with all its faults... Of the other texts...Callimachus probably appealed to advanced students only, while Dionysius and Lycophron... had been popular in the middle ages, the first as a text-book of geography, the second as a series of riddling prophecies by Cassandra" (Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy , Baltimore 1992, p. 147). Bozérian jeune may have produced a series of matching bindings for an unidentified collector's pocket Aldines. An identical binding by Bozérian on a copy of the fourth Aldine Petrarch (1533) from the Foyle Library was sold at Christie's London on 11 July 2000 (part lot 246, illustrated); apparently the same tools were used on a binding in blue morocco on a copy of the 1518 Aeschylus in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine collection at UCLA (no. 143). Adams P-1218; Ahmanson-Murphy 92; Renouard 64.9.
PINDAR (522?-443 B.C.). [Odes]. Olympia. Pythia. Nemea. Isthmia . - CALLIMACHUS. Hymni . - DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES. De situ orbis . - LYCOPHRON. Alexandra, obscurum poema , in Greek. Edited by Aldus Manutius Venice: Aldus Manutius and his father-in-law Andreas Asulanus, January 1513. Aldine 8 o (156 x 91 mm). 187 leaves (of 188, without the final blank). Dedicatory letter to Andrea Navagero. Types: 1:80 Italic, 90 Greek, cut by Francesco Griffo. Woodcut anchor device on title. Initial spaces with guide letters, modern capitals supplied in alternating red and blue, opening initial in gold on blue ground. (Small wormhole in first 5 leaves, repaired marginal tear to 23/4 touching a letter, light foxing to a few leaves.) Crimson straight-grained morocco gilt, sides with border of roll-tooled interlocking circles framed by double fillets, smooth spine densely gilt and stippled, gilt edges, Greek key roll on turn-ins, yellow moiré silk endleaves, by FRANçOIS BOZéRIAN, signed ("Rel. p. Bozérian jeune") at foot of spine (extremities rubbed, small stain to upper cover). Provenance : William, Earl of Carysfort (1894 Elton Hall bookplate); Albert May Todd (bookplate, sale New York, Anderson Galleries, 22 October 1929). EDITIO PRINCEPS of Pindar's Odes and Lycophron's only surviving poem, second edition in Greek of Callimachus' Hymns and Dionysius Periegetis. Although his copy-texts were faulty, Aldus's edition served as the basis of most subsequent editions until the 19th century. "Pindar was such a famous name that there must have been demand for a printed text. He is, however, a difficult author, and it was not to be expected that the first editor would do much more than reproduce a current text with all its faults... Of the other texts...Callimachus probably appealed to advanced students only, while Dionysius and Lycophron... had been popular in the middle ages, the first as a text-book of geography, the second as a series of riddling prophecies by Cassandra" (Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy , Baltimore 1992, p. 147). Bozérian jeune may have produced a series of matching bindings for an unidentified collector's pocket Aldines. An identical binding by Bozérian on a copy of the fourth Aldine Petrarch (1533) from the Foyle Library was sold at Christie's London on 11 July 2000 (part lot 246, illustrated); apparently the same tools were used on a binding in blue morocco on a copy of the 1518 Aeschylus in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine collection at UCLA (no. 143). Adams P-1218; Ahmanson-Murphy 92; Renouard 64.9.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
