Beschreibung:

HERODOTUS (c.490-425). Historia , in Greek. Edited by Aldus Manutius Venice: Aldus Manutius September 1502. The editio princeps of "the first work that can truly be called history in the modern sense" (Clemons and Fletcher), from the library of Edith Rockefeller and with significant early scholarly marginalia. “Herodotus is the earliest historian; his predecessors were by contrast chroniclers…he is a Romantic, with all the faults and virtues of the Romantic” (PMM). Alternately treated as both the originator of the historical method and as “the father of lies” and a mere recounter of fables, his work, which deals primarily with the history of the Persian wars with the Greek city states, was particularly relevant in the Renaissance, when the Ottomans—another Eastern enemy both alien and strangely familiar—threatened European hegemony. This edition was among the crown jewels of Aldus’s output, conceived as a match to his Thucydides published four months earlier. Aldus claims in the dedication that he corrected the text from multiple exemplars, and indeed he was the first to have access to the 'Florentine' codices, whereas Valla had used the so-called Roman family of manuscripts for his earlier translation. This copy contains copious early scholarly marginalia in several hands, offering commentary on Greek etymology and offering new readings of the text which differ from both Aldus and Valla—several of which appear in later editions of the text. Ahmanson-Murphy 62; Clemons and Fletcher 16; PMM 41; Renouard 8. Folio (308 x 203mm). Greek and Roman types. Woodcut Aldine device on title and final page (repair to first leaf affecting a few letters of the preface, repair to upper corner of one leaf, light marginal dampstain affecting some leaves). 18th-century French crimson morocco gilt, edges gilt, possibly by Derome. Provenance : early marginalia in several hands, some slightly cropped – early library label – Edith Rockefeller McCormick (1872-1932, American philanthropist, bookplate) – Frederick Spiegelberg (1862-1937, New York judge; morocco label, his sale, Anderson Galleries, 11 March 1937, lot 377).