Beschreibung:

ETYMOLOGICUM MAGNUM GRAECUM -- \kEtymologikon mega\K. Edited by Marcus Musurus. With poems by Musurus and Johannes Gregoropoulos, Venice: Zacharias Kallierges, first press, for Nikolaos Blastos and Anna Notaras, 8 July 1499. Median 2° (378 x 258mm). Collation: A 10 B-ς AA-ΓΓ 8 ΔΔ 6 (A1r Greek verse by Musurus and Gregoropoulos, A1v editor's preface, A2r text, ΔΔ5v colophon, ΔΔ6r register, ΔΔ6v blank). 224 leaves. A single paper stock. Type 1:121Gk. Double column, 50 lines. Woodcut headpieces (3 blocks in 12, 10 and 1 impressions), one to each section of the alphabet (23) except υ, woodcut devices of Bastos and Kallierges, 10- and 5-line woodcut initials. All woodcuts, headings, brackets, capital to each entry and signatures in first quire PRINTED IN RED. (A few small marginal wormholes and slight browning at beginning and end, red-printing somewhat offset.) Eighteenth-century French red morocco gilt, roll-tooled borders on sides, Royal arms of France (variant of Olivier fer 2495.2 and 2496.1) blocked in the centre, smaller arms tool in compartments of spine, red edges, marbled endpapers (binding rubbed, minor stain). Provenance : Louis XV (1710-74) or Louis XVI (1754-93), Kings of France (neither this precise arms block nor the small spine tool reproduced in Olivier, the two kings shared on their bindings several armorial blocks, which had been inherited from their ancestor Louis XIV); Samuel Chandler (late-18th-century purchase inscription, #1 10s); Stephen Weston (purchase inscription dated 1796, bookplate), translator of Euripides and Firdausi. FIRST EDITION of "a Byzantine compilation, much more useful to its original intended public than to foreigners learning the language" (Wilson p. 50). This 12th-century Greek etymological dictionary, "a typical example of the scholarship of the medieval Byzantines" (Geanakoplos p. 204), was KALLIERGES' FIRST TYPOGRAPHICAL PRODUCTION. Editor, printer and one of the publishers were Cretans and the Etymologicum was an all-Greek enterprise. In his preface Musurus explains that it is meant to serve as a reference book for the reading of poetry, especially Homer; he complains about the obscurities of the available old manuscripts. It took Kallierges five years to develop this Greek fount, whereas Blastos solved the problem of casting accents in one piece with a letter to create different sorts. (Aldine type mostly included separately cast accents.) For full discussions of Musurus's preface and verse, the privilege taken out by the partnership with the Venetian authorities, the technicalities of casting the Greek type and accents, and Aldus's role in marketing the book, see Proctor, Printing of Greek and Barker, Greek Script & Type . FINE COPY. HC *6691; GW 9426; BMC V, 580 (IC. 24733-35); Goff E-112; IGI 3720; Sander 7710; Essling 1184; Legrand I, 23. Botfield 225-28.