Beschreibung:

AESOP (a slave from Samos, ? early 6th century B.C., attributed to). Vita et fabulae . Translated from Greek into Latin by Franciscus Rinucius Aretinus (ca. 1395 - after 1456). Milan: Philippus de Lavagnia, 26th June 1479. Royal half-sheet 8° (200 x 142mm). Collation: a-c 8 d 4 (a1 blank, a2 r translator's dedicatory preface to Antonio de la Cerda, Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus, a3 r Life of Aesop, incipit: Qui per omnem vitam vite studiosissimus fuit , d4 v blank); e-g 8 (e1 r Fables Argumentum fabularum , incipit: Esopus fabulatorum clarissimus, natione quidem frigius , line 20 De Aquila et Vulpe , incipit: Aquila et vulpes conflata inter se amicicia , g7 v verse addressed to the buyer of the book, incipit: Si placet hybernas libris tibi fallere noctes , colophon, g8 blank). 50 leaves (without the initial and final blank). Type 6:92GR (gothic lower case, roman capitals). 27 lines. Initial-spaces with guide-letters, spaces for Greek left blank. (Small tear in last leaf affecting a few letters, a few tiny wormholes, some staining.) 18th-century Italian vellum-backed boards. Provenance : Sir George Shuckburgh (armorial bookplate). Fourth edition of Rinucci d'Arezzo's translation, the first published by this Milanese press. Rinucci taught at the University of Rome, travelled to Crete in 1415-6, and with Giovanni Aurispa brought Greek manuscripts back from Constantinople in 1423. Already by the end of the 5th century B.C. the body of native Greek Fable was generally ascribed to Aesop; his name was familiar to Aristophanes and Plato. In the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance Aesop became a school-text, which explains the large number of editions and their extreme rarity. Of Filippo da Lavagna's June edition only five copies are found in Italian libraries, and the Boston Public Library is its only American location. C 276; GW 338; Pr 5871; BMC VI, 707 (IA. 26179); Goff A-100; IGI 69; Rogledi Manni 16; Flodr 4.34.