Sophocles, Tragodiai, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1502, Venetian brown goatskin, alla greca over grooved wooden boards, ca. 1502, by Schunke's Meister des hebräischen Bibel

Sophocles. Sophocleous Tragodiai hepta metexegeseon [Greek]. Sophoclis Tragaediae septem cum commentariis. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, August 1502

A second copy of the editio princeps of Sophocles, also, unusually, in a strictly contemporary alla greca binding. "The text completed printing in the summer of 1502, in the Academy of Aldo the Roman, but Aldo's dedicatory preface to Janus Lascaris, which was printed last with the front matter, speaks of the New Academicians gathered around the braziers during the subsequent winter" (Grolier/Aldus).

The attribution here of the binding to a Venetian workshop named by Ilse Schunke “der Meister der hebräischen Bibel” is based on its similarities with De Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia, no. 1787 & Pl. 340B (see Schunke’s “Venezianische Renaissanceeinbände” in Studi di Bibliografia in onore di T. De Marinis, 1964, IV, p. 198).

8vo (168 x 97 mm). Greek type, with some Roman and italic, 30 lines plus headline. collation: α–γ⁸ δ⁴ ε–η⁸ θ⁴ ι–λ⁸ μ⁴ ν–σ⁸ τ¹⁰ υ–φ⁸ χ¹⁰ ψ–ω⁸ αα⁸ ββ⁴: 196 leaves (δ4, θ4, and χ10 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on ββ4v, section-titles, four-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Dampstained at lower margin and, infrequently, at fore-edge, short wormtrail repaired at top of first five quires, costing a few letters on most leaves.)

binding: Venetian brown goatskin (168 x 101 mm), alla greca, wooden boards, edges cut flush and grooved, raised headcaps, ca. 1502, by Schunke's Meister der hebräischen Bibel, covers panelled with blind fillets, frame of repeated gilt arabesques within gilt fillets, gilt leaf at outer corners, gilt rosette in inner corners, centalpanel with gilt arabesque with leaf finial and small gilt knot above and below, edges painted with red and white ropework with roundel at center of each edge containing red quatrefoil. (Recased with restoration to binding at endbands and spine, regilding of leaf tools, two braided clasps lacking, edge painting obscured by damp and rubbing.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, supralibros, fore-edge decoration (a shield?) — Hartung & Hartung, Auktion 116: Wertvolle Bücher, Manuskripte, Autographen, Graphik, Munich, 8–10 May 2007, lot 266. acquisition: Purchased at Hartung & Hartung via Halwas. references: UCLA 60; Adams S1438; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 62; Edit16 36139; Grolier/Aldus 36, 37; Renouard 34/6; USTC 857020