Pollux, Onomasticon, Venice, Aldus, 1502, later English calf gilt, Syston Park copy

Julius Pollux

Ονομασκτικον. Vocabularium. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1502

Super-Chancery folio (322 x 209mm.), text in Greek, ruled in red, English early nineteenth-century calf with Aldine device stamped in gilt

FIRST EDITION of this early encyclopedia, written towards the end of the second century AD. It is essentially a listing of words gathered by subject but is an important and encyclopedic witness of the culture and history of various aspects of the Greek world, from religion to the arts to athletics to merchants to medicine. As a concession to the reader with limited Greek, Aldus includes a table of contents in Latin as well as Greek.

Please note that this lot has already been granted an export licence by the Italian authorities.

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 57; Edit16 36138; Renouard 1502/15; UCLA 54

PROVENANCE:

Sir John Hayford Thorold, Syston Park, bookplates, sale, Sotheby's, 12 December 1884, lot 1065 ("russia, gilt edges, by Roger Payne"), £2-9-0; J.W. Pease and C.W.B. Pease, bookplates