Chrysoloras, Grammatica, Paris, 1507, later calf

Manuel Chrysoloras

Ερωτηματα... Grammatica [edited by François Tissard]. (Paris: Gilles de Gourmont, 1 December 1507)

4to (210 x 140mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-page, first initial in blue on a gold ground with strawberry decoration, red and blue paraphs, ruled in red, early manuscript interlinear Latin translation in first few leaves, eighteenth-century mottled calf gilt, flat spine gilt, binding slightly rubbed

THE FIRST GREEK GRAMMAR PRINTED IN FRANCE. The editor, Tissard, states that he studied Greek with Battista Guarino in Ferrara (as did Aldus Manutius and many other notable scholars, both Italian and foreign). This edition contains the full text of the Erotemata, rather than the abridged version by Guarino. The typeface used by Gourmont has the accents on separate sorts.

For the 1501 Reggio edition of this grammar, see lot 48, and for the 1512 Alcalá edition, see lot 50.

LITERATURE

BP16 100880; USTC 180245; Botley, Learning Greek in Western Europe 1396-1529, Appendix 1: 30

PROVENANCE

early armorial of a tree with a name in a banner at foot of preface; Vincenzo, ink stamp on flyleaf