IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME
GAZA, Theodorus.
Grammatica introductiva; De mensibus; Apollonius Dyscolus: De constructione; Herodianus: De numeris.
[(Colophon:) Venice, Aldus Manutius, 25 December 1495.]
Folio, ff. [198]; [a]α–lλ8 a8 b10 AΑ–LΛ8 MM8; Greek text with title and preface in Latin, large woodcut initials and headpieces; title slightly soiled and with skilful paper repair to lower outer corner, very lightly washed and pressed with a few very skilful marginal repairs, small rust hole in first three leaves (touching headpiece and one character), but a very good, wide-margined copy; bound in nineteenth-century brown morocco by Francis Bedford (front turn-in signed in gilt), boards panelled in blind and gilt with gilt floral cornerpieces, spine gilt in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, edges gilt; very slightly rubbed at extremities; nineteenth-century armorial bookplates of William Horatio Crawford of Lakelands and John Vertue, Bishop of Portsmouth (1826–1900) to front pastedown.
Added to your basket:
Grammatica introductiva; De mensibus; Apollonius Dyscolus: De constructione; Herodianus: De numeris.
A beautiful example of early Greek printing, containing the editio princeps of the grammar of Theodorus Gaza, and one of the first texts to be printed entirely in Greek.
Theodorus Gaza arrived in Italy from the Byzantine Empire around 1440, teaching Greek in Mantua, Ferrara, Rome, and Naples, and translating Greek texts into Latin, in particular Aristotle. He probably composed much of his grammatical treatise while teaching in Rome in the early 1450s; it was widely distributed in manuscript from the 1460s onwards, reaching England, Paris, Louvain, and Germany by the 1480s. It proved particularly successful in England, where numerous manuscripts were produced before this first printed edition.
Compared with earlier grammars, Gaza sought to simplify grammatical structures; he also arranged the text so that the simple material in the first book was then expanded in greater detail for the second. Alongside the grammar, Aldus included Gaza’s treatise on the calendar as well as a work by the second-century grammarian Apollonius Dyscolus and a text on Greek numerals attributed to the second-century writer Herodian.
Unlike other Greek grammars in circulation at this time, the text was solely in Greek (except for the preface by Aldus), and it was printed in a larger format, which was reflected in its initial purchase price, higher than, say, the grammar of Constantinus Lascaris which had been issued in a quarto format earlier in 1495, with the text in both Greek and Latin. These grammatical texts were in keeping with Aldus’ programme of Greek publications, designed to enable scholars to learn enough Greek themselves to read the Greek texts of Aristotle, Theocritus, Theophrastus, Athenaeus, and Aristophanes that were soon to appear from Aldus’ press.
Provenance:
1. From the library of William Henry Crawford (1815–1888) at Lakelands House, Blackrock, Cork. He ‘is remembered … for his magnificent generosity to the intellectual and cultural institutions of his native city’, particularly as a benefactor of Queen’s College Cork and its library (DIB). The sale of his own library in 1891 raised £21,254, more than any previous Irish collection. His sale, Sotheby’s, 17 March 1891, lot 1329, £2 2s to Quaritch for:
2. John Gennadius (1844–1932), Greek ambassador to London and the foremost collector of Greek books; omitted from his sale, Sotheby’s 28 March 1895.
3. John Vertue, Bishop of Portsmouth (1826–1900), appointed the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth in 1882.
HC 7500*; BMC v 553; GW 10562; Goff G110; ISTC ig00110000; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 5; Botley, appendix I: 16; Renouard 4/2.