Beschreibung:

CRASTONUS, Johannes (fl. 15th century, O. Carm.). \kLejikon kata stoixeivn\K [ Lexicon Graeco-Latinum ]. [Milan:] Bonus Accursius, [not after 1478]. Median 2° (320 x 225 mm). Collation: A-O 8 P 10 Q-Z & zz AA-PP 8 qq 6 (6+1) (A1 blank, A2r-v publisher's dedicatory letter in Latin to the Ducal Treasurer, Johannes Franciscus Turrianus, A3r-qq6v Greek and Latin text in parallel columns, qq6+1r author's Latin letter to Franciscus Ferrarius, philosopher and physician, qq6+1v blank). 369 leaves. Two main paper stocks (one unwatermarked, the other watermarked with a Lombardy rosette). Pinholes visible in the outer margins. Types 1:119R and 2:119Gk. 35 lines. Double column. Initial-spaces with Greek printed guide-letters. (Small wormholes at the beginning and a few at the end, affecting occasional individual letters, all carefully mended in Charles Lewis's workshop over thirty hours, charged to Botfield at one shilling per hour, minor tear in final leaf also mended.) Scarlet straight-grained morocco gilt (ca. 1840), by Charles Lewis gilt edges, marbled endpapers (binding cost #2. 12s.) Provenance : Unrubricated, but a few contemporary marginalia in Greek and Latin; Reina Collection of Milan (apparently not included in the Regnard-Silvestre sale, Paris 1840); sold by Payne and Foss to Botfield for 12 gns. (Acquisitions 19v). FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED GREEK LEXICON, and probably Accursius's first publication. Giovanni Crastoni's dictionary did more to advance Greek studies in the Renaissance than any other work, except perhaps Lascaris's grammar Erotemata . It was republished three times in the 15th century, including Aldus's revision of 1497. In 1480 Accursius extracted and rearranged from it a Latin-Greek vocabulary, published in royal half-sheet 8° and twice reprinted by Bertochus in chancery 4°. The Greek type was taken over by Bonus Accursius from Dionysius Paravisinus, the publisher of the first edition of the Greek grammar by Constantine Lascaris (Milan 1476, H9920). It was designed by the Greek calligrapher Demetrius Damilas and probably cut and cast under his supervision. Its model was not his own hand but Michael Apostolis's script (see N. Barker, Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script & Type in the Fifteenth Century p. 31). FRESH, TALL COPY. In the recorded copies the leaf containing Crastonus's letter to Ferrarius is either lacking or cancels the blank A1; the Reina-Botfield copy has both the orignal blank and its replacement (here inserted at the end). HC *5812; GW 7812; Pr 5962; BMC VI, 754 (IB. 26552 and 26552a); Goff C-958; IGI 3250; Rogledi Manni 353; Proctor, Printing of Greek pp. 59-61. Botfield 167-70.