Philostratus, Vita Apollonii Tyanei, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, February 1502 (March 1501) [but 1504], early nineteenth-century vellum

Philostratus, Flavius. Philostratou Eis ton Apolloniou tou Tyaneos bion biblia octo. Eusebiou Kaisareias tou Pamphilou antirrhetikos pros ta Hierokleous, Apollonion ton Tuanea toi soteri Christoi paraballontes. Philostrati de vita Apollonii Tyanei libri octo. Idem libri Latini interprete A: Rinuccino Florentino. Eusebius contra Hieroclem qui Tyaneum Christo conferre conatus fuerit. Idem latinus interprete Zenobio Acciolo florentino ordinis praedicatorum [Greek and Latin]. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, February 1502 (March 1501) [but 1504]

Editiones principes of both works, which Aldo did not publish until 1504, although their colophons are dated, respectively, 1501 and 1502. Philostratus's life of Apollonius—which appears here with the Latin translation of Alamanno Rinuccini—was written in the early third century for the empress Julia Domna; it is the sole account of the life, teachings, travels, and miracles of the first-century Neopythagorean philosopher that has come down to us.

"We do not know the exact story behind the edition of Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana: Aldus finished printing the text in March 1501 but did not publish it until May 1504, and sent it out with an introduction which attacked the work point by point and declared it the worst thing he had ever read" (M. Lowry, The World of Aldus Manutius, p. 148). 

Philostratus's text is accompanied by Eusebius’s rebuttal to Sossianus Hierocles (fl.303 AD), a late Roman aristocrat and official who had had drawn parallels between Apollonius and Christ in his treatise Philalethes.  Aldo evidently added Eusebius's tractate to the volume to compensate for the Philostratus. In a long dedicatory letter dated May 1504 to the translator of the Eusebius, Zenobio Acciaiuoli, Aldo says that he had expected great merit in Philostratus’s work, but that he cannot recall reading anything worse: it is no more than a pack of old wives’ tales. But having undertaken the task, and since three Latin editions are already in circulation, he decided to see it through and added Eusebius’s admirable little work as an antidote.

Quite a fresh copy, from the collection of Charles Clark.

Super-Chancery folio (305 x 211 mm). Greek and Roman types, 55 (Greek) or 57 (Latin) lines plus headline. collation: a–g⁸ h^{10 2}a–h⁸ i¹⁰ Apoll.⁸: 148 leaves (h10 blank; Latin text foliated). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and i10v, two- to eleven- line initial spaces with guide letters. (Scattered browning and soiling, paper flaw with an early repair in lower margin of Apoll.7).

binding: Early nineteenth-century Italian vellum (313 x 222 mm), smooth spine with green and red morocco labels, plain endpapers and edges. (Lightly soiled, extremities rubbed.)

provenance: Early deleted ownership inscription at foot of title-page — Samuel Butler (1774–1839), Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry, inscription in French on front free endpaper; his sale, Christie's, Bibliotheca Butleriana… Part the Second, Aldine Collection, London, 1–10 June 1840, lot 1833; purchased by — unidentified owner (£1 4s) — Horatio William Walpole, 4^th Earl of Orford (1813–1894), armorial bookplate; his sale, Sotheby's, London, 10–11 June 1895, lot 231; purchased by — William Ridler, London (11s) — Charles W. Clark (1871–1933); The Library of Charles W. Clark (San Francisco, 1914), I, p. 97 ) — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia. acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1970. references: UCLA 82; Adams P1067; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 85; Edit16 36113; Renouard 26/2; USTC 848072