Sophocles. Tragaediae septem. Venice, Aldus, 1502. later red morocco gilt

SOPHOCLES

Τραγωδιαι επτα... Tragaediae septem. Venice: Aldus Manutius, in Aldi Romani Academia, August 1502

8vo (151 x 88mm.), text in Greek, with 3 blank leaves, woodcut Aldine device on final verso (otherwise blank), eighteenth-century red morocco gilt, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, manuscript note in English about copies sold in the early nineteenth century tipped onto front flyleaf, occasional light foxing, extremities very slightly rubbed

EDITIO PRINCEPS, and the first of Aldus's Greek texts to appear in his new octavo format. The commentaries mentioned on the title-page were not included in this edition and were later published in 1518 by the Gymnasium Mediceum, the Greek college in Rome whose press was established by Janus Lascaris, the dedicatee of this edition. Aldus's small Greek cursive appears here for the first time; later in 1502 Francesco Griffo, Aldus's typecutter, left Aldus's employ, and no new fonts were cut after this. This is also the first book in which Aldus's Greek Academy is mentioned, in both the preface and the colophon: "in Aldi Romani Academia".

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 62; Edit16 36139; Renouard 34/6; UCLA 60

PROVENANCE:

George Becher Blomfield (1801-1885), armorial bookplate (his library from Mollington Hall, Cheshire, sold by Sotheby's, 10 November 1906, but this volume not found in the sale catalogue)