Crastonus, Dictionarium graecum, Venice, Aldus, 1497, modern green morocco

Johannes Crastonus

Lexicon Graeco-latinum [with other grammatical tracts]. Venice: Aldus Manutius, December 1497

Super-Chancery folio (305 x 203mm.), 243 leaves (of 244, without final blank), a-i κ⁸ l¹⁰ A-K⁸ L¹⁰ M⁸ N¹⁰ O p-r⁸ s⁶ t⁸, 42 lines, text in Latin and Greek, one woodcut initial on O1, initial spaces with printed guides, early annotations in Greek and Latin in several hands, mostly comprising additional dictionary entries, modern green morocco gilt, spine gilt in compartments, doublures of red morocco gilt tooled in the manner of a sixteenth-century Spanish binding with the royal arms of Spain, first quire washed and pressed with some marginal paper repairs, occasional light staining, last leaf repaired at head with loss of a few letters

This Greek-Latin lexicon was first printed in 1476 and was based by Crastone on earlier work by Lascaris and other Greek scholars; this is the third edition, to which additional grammatical tracts and other supplementary material have been added, including Crastone's Latin-Greek dictionary, which previously appeared as a separate publication. The index of Latin terms was provided by Aldus, who in his preface ad lectorem (O4v) explains how to use the dictionary and its index, starting with the advice that readers should first number the leaves as the index provides leaf and line numbers for each entry.

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 18; ISTC ic00960000; Renouard 1497/7; UCLA 16; Botley, Learning Greek in Western Europe 1396-1529, Appendix II, 6

PROVENANCE:

Jesuit college of Antequera (Andalusia), washed inscription on title-page; José Lasso de la Vega, name stamped on inside lower cover