Ἐπιστολαὶ διαφόρων φιλοσόφων ῥητόρῶν σοφιστῶν; ἑξ πρὸς τοῖς είκοσι. ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν τᾖ ἑξῆς εὑρήσεις σελίδι [...]

Full title: Ἐπιστολαὶ διαφόρων φιλοσόφων ῥητόρῶν σοφιστῶν; ἑξ πρὸς τοῖς είκοσι. ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν τᾖ ἑξῆς εὑρήσεις σελίδι. Epistolae diversorum philosophorum. Oratorum. Rhetorum sex & viginti. Quorum nominainse quenti in venies Pagina.

 

2 vols. in 4to. v. 1: pp. [532]; v. 2: pp. [276]. Signatures: v. 1: *⁶ [α]-[ ε]¹² [ϝ]¹² [ζ]-[ η]⁸ [θ]¹ [ι]-[τ]⁸ 2[τ]⁶ [υ]-[ ω]⁸ [Α]-[Γ]⁸ [Δ]⁴ ([ζ]8 blank); v. 2: [α]-[ ε]⁸ [ζ]-[ η]⁶ [θ]-[ρ]⁸ [σ]⁶ ([σ]6 blank). Text in Greek; some preliminaries in Latin. First 17 words of the title transliterated from the Greek. Imprint information from colophon of part 1 (on recto of leaf [Δ]4); colophon to part 2 on verso of leaf [σ]5, reads: Venetiis apud Aldum. eade[m] qua caetera co[n]ditione. ISTC dates the two parts as: part 1: [29] Mar. 1499; pt. 2: [not before 17 Apr. 1499]. Part 2 has title: Epistolai Basileiou tou megalou. Libaniou tou sophistou. Chiōnos tou platōnikou. Aischinou kai Isokratous tōn rhētorōn. Phalaridos tou tyrannou Broutou rhōmaiou. Apollōniou tou tyaneōs. Ioulianou tou parabatou. Epistolae Basilii Magni Libanii Rhetoris. Chionis Platonici, Aeschinis & Isocratis oratorum Phalaridis Tyranni. Bruti Romani. Apollonii Tyanensis. Iuliani Apostatae. Eighteenth century calf gilt. Bünau arms on covers.

 

The Greek scholar and philosopher Markos Musuros (ca. 1470-1517) compiled, for the first time, these mostly spurious Greek letters by 35 authors, ranging from Plato, Isocrates, and Aeschines from antiquity to 4th-century authors such as Gregory of Nazianzus, Diogenes and later to Procopius of Gaza. Also included are Synesius, Phalaris (see also Bib# 6722376/Fr# 34.1), Julian the Apostate and St. Basil; other letters are forged or of doubtful authorship, such as those by Hippocrates and Euripides. This work is also the first printing of the supposed correspondence of Alexander the Great with his teacher Aristotle. It was published by Aldo Manuzio (1449 or 1450-1515). The Aldine Epistolae Graecae “was not replaced by an equally useful collection until 1873, the date of R. Hercher's Epistolographi graeci” (N.G. Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy, London, 2017, p.150). Includes “Epistolai Basileiou tou megalou. Libaniou tou sophistou” and with “Epistolae Basilii Magni Libanii Rhetoris.”

 

From the Benedictine abbey at Ottobeuran; subsequently in the great private collection of Heinrich, Graf von Bünau (1697-1762), largely destroyed in the Allied bombing of Dresden, and with later bookplates of Horatio Williams, fourth Earl of Orford (d. 1894), T. J. Coolidge, jr, and Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow.

 

See Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Leipzig [etc.], 9367; F. R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Third Census. Millwood (N.Y.), 1973, E-64.

 

Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.