London: Typis Jacobi Flesher: prostant verò apud Cornelium Bee, M DC LXIII. 1663
Folio: 31.8 x 20.1 cm [32], 886 p. Collation: (a)2, (b)-(g)2, A-Z2, 2A-9Z2, 10A-10P2
$6,000.00
In his “Early Printed Editions of Aeschylus (1518-1664)”, J.A. Gruys gives a detailed account of Stanley’s working method, beginning with an examination of the extant manuscript materials, and vindicates Stanley from Fraenkel’s charges that Stanley’s edition relied too heavily on the work of the scholar John Pearson and that Stanley himself was a scholar of much meaner abilities.
Octavo: 17 x 11 cm. (32), 523, (1, blank), (108) pp. Collation: I. *8, **8 (**4 and 5 are conjugates that form the folded map of Spain), a-z8, A-Q8, R4. II. 134, (16) pp. Collation: A-I8, K4
$4,500.00
This edition of Caesar includes the texts of the “Gallic Wars” and “Civil War”, together with the "De bello Alexandrino", "De bello Africano", and "De bello Hispaniense", ascribed to Aulus Hirtius. This edition also includes Raimundo Marliano’s useful index of the topography of Gaul in Roman times.
Admired for their style (most famously by Cicero) and read by both his supporters and detractors alike in antiquity, Caesar’s Commentarii fell into obscurity in the Middle Ages.
Venice: In aedibvs Aldi, et Andreae soceri, Mense Ianvario. 1518 [and] Mense Novemb. 1519
Octavo: 16.3 x 10 cm. [16], 296 leaves. Collation: A-B8, a-z8, aa-kk8; ll-oo8. Complete with blank leaves B8 and kk7.
$6,500.00
This edition contains Caesar's extant works: the “Commentarii de Bello Gallico”, Caesar’s account of his campaigns in Gaul, covering the period from 58 to 52 B.C.; and the “De Bello Civili”, covering the events of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey in 49 and 48 B.C.. Also included are Book VIII of the "Bellum Gallicum", and the "Bellum Alexandrinum" (appended to the three books of the “Bellum Civili” as Books IV through VII), both attributed to Caesar's lieutenant Aulus Hirtius.
Folio: Five volumes bound as two: 37.5 x 25 cm. Vol I: “Rhetorica”: *8, a-s8. (*1 is the general title, a1 is the title to Vol I); “Orationes”: aa-zz8, aaa-qqq8, rrr-sss6 (lacking blank sss6); Vol II: “Epistolae”: A-Z8, AA-CC8; “Philosophica”: Aa-Zz8, AAA-DDD8, EEE10; “Explicationes”: A-P8, Q10 (Q10 blank and present)
$10,500.00
For his edition, Robert Estienne used the text of Cicero as edited by Pietro Vettori, and has included Vettori's important "Explicationes" as a fifth volume. Vettori would later (in 1557) furnish the first complete text of Aeschylus' "Oresteia" for Henri Estienne II's celebrated edition of the tragedian's plays.
"The respect and renown accumulated by the edition of Cicero's complete works produced by Petrus Victorius (Pietero Vettori, 1499-1585) between 1534 and 1537, was in large part due to the careful and extensive integration of manuscript evidence into the text.
Cambridge: Ex officinâ Johan. Hayes, celeberrimæ Academiæ typographi. Impensis Richardi Green bibliopolæ Cantab., 1694
Folio: 32 x 20.5 cm. [8], lvi, 330; [2], 529, [43 ] p. Collation: a-g4, h2, (A)2, B-Z4, Aa-Tt4, Vv2, a-z4, aa-zz4, aaa-zzz4, aaaa-bbbb4, cccc2. With two added engraved portraits of Barnes and Euripides.
$2,500.00
“The merits of all preceding editions are eclipsed by this celebrated one of Joshua Barnes. Fabricius observes that ‘the text is accurately revised and printed, the metrical rules of Canter diligently corrected, and the entire ancient scholia on the first seven plays subjoined and enriched by excerpta from a manuscript in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The notes of various learned men, and those of Barnes accompany the scholia; the fragments of Euripides are carefully collected and displayed, with Greek and Latin notes as far as verse 2068; lastly, there are some epistles, attributed to Euripides.
Venice: Bartolomeo Zanetti, for Joannes Franciscus Trincavellius, 1537
Quarto: 20.8 x 15 cm. [4], 188 leaves. +4, [alpha]-[psi]8, [omega]4
$15,000.00
First and sole Zanetti edition, an edition famous for its typographic beauty. This edition is of central importance, as it contains the first printing of the Greek scholia, and formed the basis of virtually all subsequent editions. Dibdin says that "this is a truly valuable, if not indispensable, volume in a library of any classical pretension." This edition includes all of the works ascribed to Hesiod: the "Works and Days", the "Theogony" and the "Shield of Herakles".
Mortimer 233. Brunet III:140. Sander 3380; Adams H-470; Hoffmann II, 248; Bibliotheca Bacchica 345; Layton, pp. 33, 513-21; Schweiger I, 143; Graesse III, 262; STC Italian, p. 326.
Quarto. 24.5 x 20.3 cm. Two volumes bound as one: *4, **4, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Zzz4, Aaaa-Vvvv4, Xxxx2; a-z4, aa-zz4, aaa-xxx4, aaaa-eeee4, ffff2
$6,500.00
This edition contains the Greek texts of the Homeric epics, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey"; as well as the Homeric Hymns and the mock epic "Batrachomyomachia". With the Latin translation of the classical scholar Cornelius Schrevelius (1608-1661) and the Greek commentary of Pseudo Didymus.
"Whatever our views may be on the authorship of the Homeric poems, there is no doubt of their astonishing quality.
Willems 1202; Dibdin II, 53; Brunet III, 272; Graesse III, 328; Schweiger I, 158; Bibliotheca Philologica Classica et Archaeologica (1913), 2087 ('Cette belle édition est recherchée à cause des commentaires')
Strasbourg: Johann Reinhard, called Grüninger, 12 March, 1498
Folio: 298 x 222 mm. Collation: [*]6, A-V6, X-Z6, AA-II6, KK-LL8; [**]6
$60,000.00
This copy is partially rubricated and is annotated, in Latin, throughout in at least two contemporary hands. The early annotations are intact, having been spared by the binder’s knife, and consist of metrical notations, citations from other authors, and comments. There are also two glosses in Greek (leaves S6v and FF1r) as well as an apparent note in German (leaf FF6). An added manuscript index for the “Epistolae” is bound after the final text leaf.
Hain 8898; Goff H 461; BMC I, 112; Polain 1989; Proctor 485; Walsh 182; Fairfax Murray (German) 205; Rosenwald Collection 188; Dibdin, Bibl. Spenceriana II, 87-95. For Grüninger, his illustrated books, and Locher’s edition of Horace, see Mark Morford, Johann Grüninger of Strasbourg in “Syntagmatia: Essays on Neo-Latin Literature in Honour of Monique Mund-Dopchie and Gilbert Tournoy (Humanistica Lovaniensia, XXVI) 2009
Quarto: 19 x 14 cm. Aa-Bb4; A-X4, Y6; aa-dd4. Complete.
$5,000.00
Fourth and most complete edition of Huttich’s "Imperatorum et Caesarum Vitae", his most important work, first published in 1525.
This volume is profusely illustrated with several hundred woodcut images, most of which are by Hans Weiditz. "The medallions of the emperors [and their families] are 268 in number, commencing with Julius Caesar and ending with Frederick III, Maximilian I and his son Philip the Fair, Charles V and Ferdinand I.
Quarto: 20 x 14.6 cm. Collation: a-f8 g10 (a1 blank, a2r dedication to M. Fabius [Quintilianus?], a3r text, g9r commendatory poem by Jacobus Sentinus, g10r poem and verse colophon by Johannes Santritter, g10v blank). 58 leaves. 31 lines. Types 3:91G (text), 7:92G (heading on a2r), 91 Gk (a few words). Title on a2r printed in red, 11-, 7-, 5- and 3-line white-on-black woodcut initials. 47 half-page woodcuts, probably designed by Johannes Santritter, of the constellation and planet figures.
$45,000.00
FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION of Hyginus’ “Poeticon Astronomicon”, illustrated with 47 half-page woodcuts of the constellations and the planets personified. The text is set in a pleasing Gothic. The text of Hyginus was first published in an unillustrated edition at Ferrara in 1475.
The “Poeticon Astronomicon” (more correctly, the “Astronomica”) is an ancient Roman work on the constellations chiefly based on the work of the Greek scientist Eratosthenes (3rd c.
Folio: 32.7 x 21.7 cm. [12], 804, 809-1351, 1354-1403, [43] pp. Collation: [A] B-6F . (with blank [A]6 and without blank 6F6)
$20,000.00
This is the first complete rendering into English of the most important Roman historian. The scholar-surgeon Philemon Holland is one of the great literary figures of the twilight years of the Elizabethan age. Like his contemporary John Florio, who translated Montaigne’s “Essays” into English in 1599, Holland not only made the works that he translated accessible to English readers, but also put his own stamp on those works, creating something at once faithful and new.
London: printed by Aug. Mathewes, for Thomas Iones, and are to be sold at his shop in St. Dunstanes Church-yard, and printed [by J. Haviland] for James Boler at the signe of the Marigold in Pauls Church-yard, 1631 and 1630
Octavo: 14 x 9.5 cm. I. a8, A-S8 T2. II. A-K8. With blank leaves A1, A2, and K8 in the second book present. . There are engraved title pages to both works; the first is tipped in. The second is integral to the collation. Complete.
$6,500.00
The English poet, playwright, and historian Thomas May had a remarkable life and career. He experienced royal favor during the early reign of Charles II, who referred to him on a notable occasion as “My poet”. In 1627 May published his greatest poetical work, a translation of Lucan’s Roman epic poem the “Pharsalia”. Written during the reign of Nero, the “Pharsalia”, which took as its subject the civil war between the would-be dictator Julius Caesar and the senatorial faction led by Pompey the Great, offered a subtle critique of imperial power and a warm nostalgia for republican institutions.
Folio: 30 x 20 cm. π6 (-blank π1), ¶4, A-D4, E4 (-blank E4), F-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Ttt4, Vvv2. (Leaves Q2 and 3 reversed.) With an added engraved title, engraved portrait frontispiece, and fifteen full-paged engravings.
$6,500.00
This edition of Sandys’ translation also includes his translation of Book One of Vergil’s “Aeneid”. Sandys never accomplished the task of translating the entire poem. The work that he found “too heavy a burthen” was later taken up by his admirer, John Dryden. On the front end-paper of this volume is a manuscript quote, attributed to Dryden, which reads, “English poetry owes much of its present beauty to Sandys’ translations.
Octavo: 19.3 x 11.5 cm. I. *8 (-*1, blank), **8, ***2, A-Z8, Aa-Oo8, Pp4, Aaa-Lll8; II. *4, A-F8, G4 (lacking blank leaf G4) With an added, engraved title page by Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708).
$4,500.00
Michael Hadrianides’ 1669 edition of Petronius is the first to incorporate the “Fragmentum” discovered in Trau, Dalmatia, which contained the hitherto unknown text of the “Cena Trimalchionis” and is also "the first edition to contain all the fragments of the novel that we currently possess”. This copy is bound together with the –often lacking- 1670 edition of the “Fragmentum”, which prints the text as it appeared in the manuscript, here edited by Johannes Lucius, with the Apologia of Marino Statileo, who discovered the manuscript in Dalmatia.
Schmeling & Stuckley, Bibilography of Petronius, 71 & 78; Gaselee (Bibliography of Petronius), 49 & 51; Schweiger II p.723; Brunet IV 574; Graesse Vol 5 p. 239; Dibdin (4th ed.) Vol II, p. 276. Literature: See M.S. Smith’s 1975 Oxford edition of the “Cena Trimalchionis”, pp. xxii-xxiii and xxxvi; See also Alfred R. Allinson’s introduction to his translation of the “Satyricon.”
Folio: 31.7 x 20.4 cm. 6 lvs, 690 pp., 23 lvs. [alpha]6, [alpha]-[omega]6, [2Alpha]-[2Omega]6, [3Alpha]-[3Eta]6, [3Theta]-[3Iota]8, [3Kappa]-[3Mu]6, [3Nu]4
$15,000.00
This edition was edited by the Dutch humanist Arnoldus Arlenius (d. 1582). The preface is signed by Marcus Hopper, Petri’s secretary and professor of Greek at the University of Basel, who dedicates the edition to Basilio Amerbach. Hopper makes two main points in his preface: that the edition was designed so as to be more affordable and easily usable for the wider reading public, and that thanks to Arlenius’ exhaustive quest for new manuscripts from Italy, it had been possible to note and to correct a host of errors (the corrections number 1,000), so that the edition is the most authoritative.
Folio: 33 x 22 cm. π6 [par.]4 a-b6 A8 B-3I6 3K4; A-3G6 3H4 3I-3O6 3P8 (lacking blank leaves π1 and 3P8) Complete in two parts; with a divisional title page to the second tome and the errata/colophon on leaf 3P7
$20,000.00
“The ‘Natural History’ of Pliny the Elder is more than a natural history: it is an encyclopaedia of all the knowledge of the ancient world… It comprises 37 books with mathematics and physics, geography and astronomy, medicine and zoology, anthropology and physiology, philosophy and history, agriculture and mineralogy, the arts and letters… The ‘Historia’ soon became a standard book of reference; abstracts and abridgements appeared by the third century.
Quarto: 25.8 x 16.7 cm. *4, a-z4, aa-zz4, aaa-kkk4, lll2; A-Z4, Aa-Gg4, Hh2 (includes blank ggg4; lacks blank Hh2).
$3,500.00
“The great Estienne Sophocles, important for the scholia, which include those of Triclinius. The Greek text is followed by the commentary of Joachim Camerarius, and his Latin versions of Ajax and Electra. [Estienne] has again employed his peculiar system of diacritical annotations.” (Schreiber) With Estienne’s “Noli altum Sapere” printer’s device on the title page.
