Beschreibung:

not before 14] May 1502 THUCYDIDES. De bello Peloponnesiaco , Gk. Ed. Aldo Manuzio. Super-chancery 2° (319 x 202mm). Collation: . #960;A 8 (1 r title in Greek and Latin Thucydides , 1 v dedication, 2 r Aphthonios Sophista of Antioch's encomium of Thucydides from his popular book of rhetorical exercises called Progymnasmata , 2 r -3 r anonymous biography of the historian, 3 r -5 r biography and critical notes on Thucydides' style and works by Marcellinus [late-6th century], 5 v -7 v Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Thucydidean idiom, 7 v Suidas' biography, -8 blank); A-O 8 P 4 (text, P3 v quire register and colophon, -P4 blank). 122 leaves (without the two blanks). Greek types 3:84 (text) and 4:79 (dedication), italic 1:80 (dedication), roman 10:82 (incidental). 55 lines and headline, initial-spaces with guide-letters. (A single tiny wormhole at the end.) PREFACE: The recipient of Aldus's dedicatory letter is Daniele Renier, Venetian senator, procurator of San Marco, collector of Hebrew, oriental and classical manuscripts, who had learnt Greek at Urbano Bolzanio's school. Aldus attests that no one has taken greater pleasure in his labours or in liberating literature from its dismal fetters; never has Renier ceased to encourage him in these difficult times, and he frequently comes to the shop to see what might be under production in Latin, Greek or Hebrew, being expert in all three languages. At the same time he has never shown the least sign of envy of Aldus's accomplishments, something which cannot be said for certain wretched literary gravediggers. He therefore bestows his Thucydides on the learned in Renier's name, and if any gratitude from students should be due him, it belongs to them both. No need to praise Thucydides, save to say that Demosthenes wrote out this historical work ten times in order to acquaint himself the better with it. Aldus intends to follow up with Xenophon and Gemistos Plethon, but has had to postpone the project, because he cannot lay his hands on the required minimum of three exemplars [the edition appeared a year and a half later, see lot 46]. Meanwhile, Herodotus and Sophocles are on the press. BINDING: 18th-century Italian vellum, the Buoncompagni device of a winged serpent gilt-tooled on spine, red-mottled edges. PROVENANCE: Prince Baldassarre Boncompagni (smoke-stamped armorial device), historian of science and biographer of Leonardo Pisano (1852), whose manuscripts were catalogued by Enrico Narducci in 1862 (2nd ed. 1892) and incunables in 1896. EDITIO PRINCEPS. Unlike Lorenzo Valla, whose excellent Latin translation of this author (1st ed. Treviso: ca. 1483) was evidently made from an important manuscript now lost, Aldus's copytext was undistinguished. Valla had complained of the complicated task that Cardinal Bessarion had set him with the commission for the Thucydides translation, and Aldus therefore understandably speaks of his own accomplishment in presenting the original Greek text of this difficult historian. IN FRESH CONDITION. Isaac 12777; Adams T-662; Hoffmann III, 550; Dionisotti & Orlandi XXXVII; Murphy 45; Sansoviniana 60; Laurenziana 60; R 33:4