1524 GREEK Aldine HOMER ILIAD Post-Incunabula ALDUS

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[Early Printing - Post-Incunabula - Venice - Aldine Press] [Greek Classics - Homer - Iliad] [Greek Typography] [Aldus Manutius] [Girolamo Aleandro] Venice: heirs of Aldus Manutius, and Andrea Torresano d'Asola, 1524. Edited by Aldus Manutius. SCARCE 3rd Aldine edition of The Iliad in Greek (first printed by Aldus in 1504). Printed at the celebrated Venetian printing house of Aldus Manutius, this elegant volume presents one of greatest and oldest epic poems of the Western literature printed in the elegant Aldine Greek type. The text of this 1524 edition is based on the 1517 second Aldine edition, but includes the important dedicatory preface by Aldus Manutius to Girolamo Aleandro taken from the 1504 first Aldine edition. Text entirely in Greek, except for the Latin/Greek titles on 1 1r and A 1r, and the dedicatory preface in Latin (leaves A 2r-A 3v). The volume also includes the Greek text of the biographies of Homer by Plutarch and (attributed to) Herodotus. (Odyssey and the minor works of Homer were issued in a separate volume, which is not included ) This fine Greek edition of Homer belongs to the famous Aldine series of octavo editions of Latin and Greek classics , which had began with the publication by Aldus of the octavo Virgil in 1501. The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius (1449 - 1515) in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics. The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italic types. The press was the first to issue the classics in the compact octavo format. These editions were intended as affordable and convenient volumes in handy formats, that gentlemen of leisure could easily transport in a pocket or a satchel. The press issued 127 editions during the lifetime of Aldus. The press was continued after Aldus's death in 1515 by his wife and her father, Andrea Torresano of Asola, until his son Paolo took over. This 1524 edition contains Aldus's 1504 dedicatory epistle to Girolamo Aleandro (1480 - 1542) written for the 1st aAldine Homer of 1504. Aleandro was a brilliant Italian Renaissance scholar and, later, a cardinal. (He was created cardinal in pectore on December 22, 1536 by Pope Paul III, the first cardinal appointed in pectore.) Born at Motta, Aleandro studied at Venice, w he became acquainted with Erasmus and Aldus Manutius, and at an early age was reputed one of the most learned men of the time. He learned Hebrew from a Jewish refugee from Spain and Greek from Carteromachus and Musurus. Soon he was adding Arabic and Chaldee. He did editorial work on the Aldine Plutarch and helped Erasmus with the Adagia. In 1508 he went to Paris on the invitation of Louis XII as professor of belles lettres , and held for a time the position of rector in the university. Entering the service of Eberhard, prince-bishop of Liège, he was sent by that prelate on a mission to Rome, w Pope Leo X retained him, giving him (1519) the office of librarian of the Vatican. In the following year he went to Germany to be present as papal nuncio at the coronation of Charles V, and was also present at the diet of Worms, w he headed the opposition to Luther, advocating the most extreme measures to repress the doctrines of the reformer. His conduct evoked the fiercest denunciations of Luther, but it also displeased more moderate men and especially Erasmus. The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states. The Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. The Iliad contains approximately 15,700 lines, and is written in a literary amalgam of several Greek dialects. One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Gr... read more

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