Beschreibung:

THUCYDIDES (ca 460/455 - ca 399 B.C.). [ History of the Peloponnesian War , in Greek]. Edited by Aldus Manutius (ca 1452-1515). Venice: Aldus Manutius May 1502. Aldine 2 o (298 x 205 mm). Collation : A 8 ; 2A-O 8 P 4 . 122 (of 124) leaves (lacking A8 and final blanks). Greek types 3:84 (text) and 4:79 (dedication), italic type 1:80 (dedication), roman type 10:82 (incidental). 55 lines and headline, initial-spaces with guide-letters. (Very pale dampstain in lower margins at end.) 19th-century polished calf gilt, spine gilt, by LeBrun (rebacked preserving original backstrip, some wear at extremities). Provenance : Le Comte Foy (bookplate). EDITIO PRINCEPS of the most important work in Greek historiography. According to Enoch Powell ( The Aldine Scholia to Thucydides 1936), Aldus edited the text from a Cretan manuscript, Paris BnF suppl.gr.256 from the Pantin Collection (nr 40); Martin Sicherl ( Griechische Erstausgaben des Aldus Manutius Druckvorlagen 1997) found no evidence in the manuscript of printer's use, suggesting that another Cretan copy of the same recension served as exemplar. In any case, the printer's copytext was undistinguished, much inferior to the lost manuscript from which Lorenzo Valla had made his Latin translation (Treviso: c. 1483 [Klebs 971.1]). The recipient of Aldus's dedicatory letter, Daniele Renier, was a Venetian senator, procurator of San Marco and collector of Hebrew, oriental and classical manuscripts. The printer mentions how Renier frequently comes to his shop to see what Greek or Latin text might be under production. Adams T-662; Isaac 12777; Renouard 33.4; Murphy 45; Sansoviniana 60; Laurenziana 60; Dionisotti & Orlandi XXXVII.