Philelphus, Epistolae, Venice, 1488, first leaf illuminated, nineteenth-century half calf

Franciscus Philelphus

Epistolae. Venice: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis, 28 January 1488

Chancery folio (284 x 187mm.), 125 leaves (of 126, without initial blank), a-d⁸ e-t⁶ u⁴, 54 lines, roman type with some phrases in Greek, first leaf with gold initial on a coloured ground with marginal floral decoration and a coat of arms in gilt at foot, other initial spaces, nineteenth-century half calf, light staining on last few leaves, joints slightly rubbed

Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) spent some years at the Byzantine court in the 1420s and is generally considered to be the greatest scholar of Greek of his time. He obtained a chair in Florence in 1429, but had to flee in 1434 because of disputes with other scholars, finally settling in Milan at the Sforza and Visconti courts. This volume of his letters, which begins in 1427 with a letter from Venice written on his return from Constantinople and ends in 1461, addresses popes, cardinals and kings, as well as numerous humanists, including Cardinal Bessarion, Giovanni Aurispa, Ambrogio Traversari and Lorenzo Valla, and ranges from short notes to friends to lengthy philosophical discussions and diatribes. It was first printed in Venice in 1473.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ip00585000

PROVENANCE:

arms at foot of first leaf, gold a bend azure, possibly of the Morosini of Venice