Beschreibung:

POLITIANUS, Angelus (1454-94). Opera . Edited by Alexander Sartius. Venice: Aldus Manutius July 1498.
POLITIANUS, Angelus (1454-94). Opera . Edited by Alexander Sartius. Venice: Aldus Manutius July 1498. Super-chancery 2° (324 x 210mm). Collation: a-p8 q-r10 s-t8 A-I8 K4 L-P8 Q-R10 S8 T10 V6 X-Y10 Z8 &10 aa10 'iterum'aa8 'iterum'bb8 bb-hh8 ii6 kk10 (a1r title, a1v address by Aldus to Marino Sanuto, a2r index, a3r text, K4-L1r blank, X10v blank, kk8v colophon, kk9r register, kk10r 'Monodia' on the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, kk10v blank). 452 leaves. 38 lines and headline. Type: 2:114R, 7:114Gk. 2- to 9-line initial spaces with guide-letters. (Some light staining at beginning and end.) A contemporary Cambridge binding possibly by the Lattice Binder: blindstamped calf over wooden boards, panelled and tooled with lattice stamps [Oldham 82 (Lattice Binder) and H.16a], paste-downs from an English medieval glossed manuscript on vellum, author and title written along fore-edges (missing clasps, repairs at hinges and spine ends). Provenance : Ralph S[myth], a monk at the Charterhouse in Kingston-upon-Hull (contemporary ownership inscription partly excised from margin of a2), some early marginal annotations, record in English of money borrowed on front paste-down – John Ingilby, Ripley Castle (inscription dated 1683 partly deleted from title) – Jorge Beristayn (bookplate) – Livio Ambrogio (bookplate). FIRST EDITION of the collected works of Politian. The great Florentine humanist had been preparing an edition of his letters when he died; the project was then taken on by Alessandro Sarti. An edition, of which a single sheet survives, was undertaken by Plato de Benedictus at Bologna, who had printed various of Politian's individual works and a collection of his vernacular writings in 1494, but the project was cut short by Plato's death in August 1496. To Politian’s already published works and translations Aldus added his letters, Latin and Greek poems, and several short treatises. A counterfeit edition was published the following year in Brescia, with a false Florentine imprint. Renouard considered it ‘l'une des plus belles qui soient sorties de l'imprimerie Aldine.’ The Hebrew type used on C5v and H8r is unrecorded in BMC, Proctor, or Haebler, and differs from the Hebrew types used later by Aldus. The first owner of this book, Ralph Smith, was a monk at the Charterhouse in Kingston-upon-Hull, where he became prior in 1529. Ker ( Medieval Libraries in Great Britain ) identified 4 other books with his ownership. He is not the same as Ralph Maleverey, as suggested by Ker (cf. Knowles, et al., Heads of Religious Houses , vol. III, p. 360). Oldham dates the use of the combination of the two binding tools used here to 1495-1505. HC 13218*; BMC V, 559 (IB. 24473-75); CIBN P-539; IGI 7952; Renouard Alde , 17:4; Goff P-886.