Beschreibung:

APOLLONIUS RHODIUS (ca.295-ca.215 B.C.). Argonautica , in Greek. With the scholia of Lucillus of Tarrha, Sophokleios and Theon of Alexandria (1st century A.D.). Edited by Janus Lascaris (1445-1535). Florence: [Laurentius Francisci de Alopa], 1496. Median 4° (221 x 163mm). Collation: α-φ 8 χ 4 (α1r editor's introduction, α1v life of the author, α2r text with commentary surround, χ3r Greek colophon, χ3v-4 blank). 172 leaves. Type: 5a,b:114Gk (2 sets of capitals for text), 5c:111Gk (scholia). 33 and 29 lines (commentary and text, varying). (Tiny wormhole in final few leaves expertly mended with individual letters in pen and ink facsimile.) Late 18th-century French blue morocco gilt, flat spine tooled in compartments, gilt turn-ins, pink silk endpapers, vellum flyleaves, gilt edges. Provenance : William Charles de Meuron, Earl Fitzwilliam (engraved armorial bookplate); Viscount Mersey (Bignor Park booklabel). EDITIO PRINCEPS. Janus Lascaris, the Greek refugee scholar, used as the basis for his edition the 10th-century manuscript found by Giovanni Aurispa on a book-buying trip in the Levant in 1421-23 (now Cod.Laur. XXXII 9). Lascaris also designed the type. Originally conceived as an upper case alphabet only, the lower case was developed specifically for printing the scholia which accompany this edition, and makes its first appearance here. (See R. Proctor, The Printing of Greek in the 15th Century p.79 and N. Barker, Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script and Type in the Fifteenth Century , p.42.) HC *1292; GW 2271; BMC VI, 667 (IB. 28023); Goff A-924; Flodr, Apollonius Rhodius 1.