Pausanias, Pausanias Pausanias, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, July 1516, seventeenth-century Dutch or German(?) russia

Pausanias. Pausanias Pausanias [Greek and Latin]. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, July 1516

Editio princeps, edited by Marcus Musurus, from the Episcopius (Bischoff) family library. Pausanias wrote his narrative based on his travels around mainland Greece during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, though the first mention of his work by another author is not until the sixth century, when Stephanus Byzantinus (who also provided the author's name and the standard title Description of Greece) mentions it in his quest for the names of Greek cities (see lot 1339).

"The editio princeps of Pausanias's description of Greece is a valuable resource for the history, nature, and archaeological sites of the area as related by a second-century CE eyewitness. The preface explains that the running titles provide the reader with a quick reference to the content of each page. Aldus had planned to issue an edition of Pausanias as early as 1497, and in 1502 thanked Johannes Calpurnius for the loan of the manuscript on which this edition is based" (Grolier/Aldus).

Super-Chancery folio (308 x 204 mm). Greek type, with some Roman, 54 lines plus headline. collation: π² aα–rρ⁸ sς⁶: 144 paginated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and sς6v, six-line initial spaces with guide letters. (A bit of mostly marginal foxing thoughout.)

binding: Seventeenth-century Dutch or German(?) russia (316 x 216 mm), border of repeated gold-tooled small flower around sides, broad frame of two mitred gilt fillets, ornaments in corners, central gilt wreath, spine gilt in six compartments, lettered in second, gilt edges. (Rebacked with original spine laid down, endpapers renewed, extremities quite rubbed.)

provenance: Nikolaus I Episcopius (1501–1564) [or his son, Nikolaus II (1531–1565), or grandson of same name], faint inscription on title-page, possibly reading "Episcopiis," comparable to an inscription recorded in a copy of the Epistolae diversorum philosophorum (Aldus, 1499) at UCLA (Catalogue 30B, “N. Episcopius?”), and potentially referring to Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel printer — unidentified owner, occasional early marginalia — Robert Rosseter Hutton (d. 1887) rector of Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire; his sale, Sotheby's London, 4–5 July 1888, lot 470; purchased by — Henry Richards Luard (1825–1891) (£1 11s); his sale, Sotheby's London, 16 November 1891, lot 1012; purchased by — Maggs Bros., London (£2 10s) — Greville, family library, red Warwick Castle shelfmark, "N/1" — Charles Guy Fulke Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick (1911– 1984) — Marlborough Rare Books, London; Catalogue 62: Early Printed Books … from the Warwick Castle Library and other sources (London, 1969), item 80 (£500) — Wynne R. H. Jeudwine (1920–1984); Bloomsbury Book Auctions, London, 18 September 1984, lot 96. acquisition: Purchased at Bloomsbury via Martin Breslauer, Inc. references: UCLA 146; Adams P521; Cataldi Palau 17; Edit16 37543; Grolier/Aldus 119; Renouard 76/3; USTC 847200