Ammonios Hermiae, Commentaria, Venice, Aldus, 1503, nineteenth-century calf

Ammonios Hermiae. Αμμωνιου του Ερμειου υπομνημα εις το περι Ερμηνειας Αριστοτελους. Μαγεντηνου Μητροπολοτου Μιτυληνης εξηγησις εις το αυτο. Ammonii Hermei Commentaria in librum peri Hermenias. Margentini archiepiscopi Mitylenensis in eundem enarratio. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, June 1503)

This copy, like others, is without Aldo’s dedication to Alberto Pio of Carpi, 17 October 1503, on the title-page verso; for a copy with the preface, see lot 119. Aldus apparently at first intended to print only the first two texts, Ammonios and Leon Magentinos (13th century?) on De interpretatione (περι Ερμηνειας), as noted on the title: the colophon is on Λ3v. Then two more texts, not noted on the title, were added on separate groups of quires: the epitome or paraphrase of De interpretatione by the polymath scholar Michael Psellos (d. ca. 1078); and a commentary on Aristotle’s Categoriae here assigned to Ammonios but actually by his pupil Joannes Philoponos; the misattribution persisted until the end of the nineteenth century. The final series of signatures was emended with hand-stamped types, changing A-F to AA-FF.

Folio (280 x 178 mm). Greek type, 54 lines plus headline. collation: A-G⁸ H⁴ (Ammonios); I-K⁸ Λ4 (Magentinos; colophon); M⁸ N-O⁶ (Psellos); AA-EE⁸ FF⁶ ([Philoponos]): 146 leaves (H4 and Λ4 blank), without preface on verso of title-page. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, typographic diagrams (full-page on AA5v, AA7r, AA7v), very extensively annotated in contemporary hand in Latin and Greek, including a note on the title-page of the two added texts.

binding: Nineteenth-century calf with blind-tooled border (290 x 185 mm), central gilt AS monogram, red edges. (Binding worn and defective, text block splitting.)

provenance: AS monogram on binding. acquisition: Purchased from Librairie Paul Jammes, Paris, 1979. references: UCLA 76 (with preface), 76.5 (without preface); Aldo Manuzio tipografo 78; Edit16 1595; Adams A989; Renouard 40/4. On the final text’s authorship, see Philoponi (olim Ammonii) in Aristotelis Categorias commentarium, ed. Ad. Busse (Berlin, 1898)