Beschreibung:

DIOGENES LAERTIUS (fl. first half 3rd century). Vitae et sententiae philosophorum . Translated by Ambrosius Traversarius (1386-1439) and edited by Benedictus Brognolus (1427-1502). Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 14 August 1475. Chancery 2° (279 x 203mm). Collation: [1 12 2 10 3-22 8 23 6 ] (1/1r blank, 1/1v editor's dedicatory letter to Laurentius Georgius and Jacobus Baduarius, 1/3r translator's letter to Cosimo de' Medici, 1/4r table of contents, 1/5r text, 21/5r Epicurus's letter to Herodotus, 23/5v colophon, 23/6 blank). 187 (of 188, without final blank) leaves. 34 lines, printed guide-letters. Type: 1b:111R (text) and 115 Greek (occasional words). 8-line initial space left blank, other 2-8-line initials alternating in red and blue. Modern half pigskin over old wooden boards, 2 new fore-edge clasps. Provenance : occasional marginal note in a contemporary humanist hand; John B. Inglis; Dr. George Kloss (book-label); Alfred Trapnell (bookplate); C.H. St.John Hornby (book-label); Clifford Rattey (bookplate). Second edition, the first edited by Benedetto Brognolo de Legnago, who in his preface highly praises Jenson as the first among the many Venetian typographers. "The account of Epicureanism, given with long direct quotations from letters of Epicurus, is perhaps the most valuable feature of Diogenes' book, not only for modern students, but also because it gave the Quattrocento humanists a fresh and reliable body of information about a philosophical school which Cicero had ridiculed and misunderstood" (N.G. Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy , p.33). Traversari was obliged to turn for help to the Florentine humanist, Carlo Marsuppini, for dealing with the Epicurean philosophy in Book 10. With the blank leaf 1/11, cancelled in many copies. HC *6199; GW 8379; BMC V, 175 (IB.19684-5); Goff D-220.