Beschreibung:

SOPHOCLES. Tragediae septem cum commentariis. In Greek and Latin. [Edited by John Gregoropoulos of Crete.] Venice: Aldus Manutius August 1502 [or the following winter]. Aldine 8° (161 x 96mm). General title, dedication to Janus Lascaris, epigrams, woodcut dolphin-and-anchor device (Fletcher no.2) on verso of final leaf.(Title lightly spotted, slight finger-soiling to first quire.) 19th-century calf, front cover with gilt arms of the 1st Duke of Sutherland, borders ruled and tooled in blind, spine in six compartments, lettered in two, possibly by C. Hering (note on flyleaf), g.e. (rebacked, old spine laid down). In modern leather-backed cloth box. Provenance : George Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland (1785-1833; binding and inscription verso of flyleaf "Gower 1813"); Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (1841-1917; armorial bookplate dated 1912); sold Sotheby's, 18 June 1934, lot 31, to Maggs; bought on behalf of Clive Bingham, 2nd Viscount Mersey (Bignor Park book-label; inscription on flyleaf "Bt. Sotheby 1934 for 11 pounds. M"). A FINE COPY OF THE EDITIO PRINCEPS, with a distinguished provenance. The edition was of long-lasting importance as superior manuscripts were not fully exploited until the nineteenth century. A substantial part of the printer's copy survives as St. Petersburg ms. gr. 731. The Sophocles is the first Greek book issued in the Aldine portable format, and the first classical text printed in the smallest and finest Aldine Greek type. According to Barker ( Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script and Type , New York: 1992, p.89) "...by any standards it is a masterpiece, not only of engraving skill executed with marvellous homogeneity on a minute scale, but also of exquisitely planned letter fit." Adams S-1438; Renouard Annales de l'Imprimerie des Alde 34:6.