Quintus Smyrnaeus, Derelictorum ab Homero libri quatuordecim, Venice, Aldus, 1505, pasta valenciana

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Παραλειπομενων Ομερου... Derelictorum ab Homero libri quatuordecim. (Venice): Aldus, [1505]

8vo (155 x 93mm.), text in Greek, woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, modern binding of pasta valenciana, red leather gilt board liners with Aldine device stamped in gilt, occasional light foxing, small repairs to corners of first two leaves

EDITIO PRINCEPS. Quintus of Smyrna's mythological epic, usually referred to as the Posthomerica, fills in the narrative from the end of the Iliad to the Odyssey, and was probably composed in the third or fourth century AD. This volume additionally contains Tryphiodorus De Troiae excidio and Coluthus De raptu Helenae, shorter poems also relating to the Trojan expedition.

The text was used by teachers of Greek in Italy after the discovery of a manuscript in Otranto by Cardinal Bessarion.

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 97; Edit16 36102; Renouard 261/14; UCLA 95

PROVENANCE:

“Jos. Lassi et amicorum” (José Lasso de la Vega), name stamped on lower inside cover