HOMER. HOMER; DIDYMUS OF ALEXANDRIA|LASCARIS, Janus.

[Homeric Scholia on the Iliad]. Homeri interpres pervetustus, in Greek. Edited by Janus Lascaris.

Rome: Vittore Carmelio and/or Zacharias, 1517.

Editio Princeps and the First Book Printed at the press of the Greek Gymnasium

[HOMER]. DIDYMUS OF ALEXANDRIA. LASCARIS, Janus, [editor]. [Homeric Scholia on the Iliad]. Homeri interpres pervetustus, in Greek. Edited by Janus Lascaris Rome: Vittore Carmelio and/or Zacharias Callierges, for Angelo Colocci, at the Press of the Greek Gymnasium [caballini montis gymnasium]. [Not before 7 September, 1517].

Editio Princeps and the first book that was printed at the press of the Greek Gymnasium in Rome. Folio (10 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches; 265 x 197 mm). [172] leaves. Text in Greek. With "To the Reader" and "Address to Pope Leo X" which is dates 7, September 1517, in Latin. Colophon and register in Greek. This is the Longleat (Beriah Botfield) copy. We were not able to locate any copies besides the present copy at auction in the past fifty years, and only one library on OCLC with a copy.

Beautifully bound in early 19th Century straight-grain morocco by Francois Bozerian (His stamp "Rel. F. Bozerian jeune" at bottom of the spine). Boards tooled in gilt and blind. Spine elaborately stamped and lettered in gilt. Boards edges gilt. Gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Silk endpapers. Blue silk page marker. Two old circular previous ownership stamps on recto of first leaf, not affecting text. Stamps are, one of which is red and one of which is black are from the Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres.

"Pope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici) called Janus Lascaris to Rome to found a Greek College in 1513, and three years later it began to issue Greek texts, principally edited by Lascaris. The printer was once thought to be Angelo Colocci, a rich Roman proponent of Greek learning in whose house the press almost certainly operated, but it was most likely Vittore Carmelio (Hobson), foreman to Callierges, first printer of Greek at Rome, or Callierges himself (Layton). The types were designed by Lascaris (cut possibly by Callierges), and first used in 1494-96 by Lorenzo di Alopa at Florence to print books Lascaris edited. Cf. A. Hobson 'The Printer of the Greek Editions "In gymnasio Mediceo ad Caballinum montem"', Studi di biblioteconomia e storia del libro in onore di Francesco Barberi, Rome: 1976: 331-335; E. Layton, The 16th-century Greek Book in Italy, pp.323-329; D.E. Rhodes, 'The Printing of a Group of Greek Books in Rome', Studies in Early Italian Printing, London: 1982, pp.111-113; Barker, Greek Script, pp.74-75. This first edition of the Homeric scholia on the Iliad has no author attribution, although it is sometimes given erroneously to Didymus (c.65 B.C.-10 A.D.). It was a standard text in the study of Homer, and clearly a required text for the students at the Greek Gymnasium." (Christies, 2002)

HBS 66901RSL.

$40,000.

Price: $40,000.00

Item #66901