Sophocles, Tragodiai, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1502, late eighteenth-century French green morocco, possibly by Derome le Jeune

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

A fourth copy of the editio princeps of Sophocles, variant, probably first, issue. This very rare variant—the only other we can trace is in Ahmanson-Murphy Collection at the University of California, Los Angeles—does not list the plays on the title-page nor print the letter of Aldo to Janus Lascaris or the epigrams on Sophocles by Simonides, Erycius, and Dioscurides on α1v–α2r, which are here blank. It is likely that copies with these lacunae were not intended to be issued.

8vo (160 x 93 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. Contemporary marginalia in Greek in two different hands (some cropped). (Some scattered foxing and staining, chiefly marginal, title-page stained and with two small holes at thin spots in lower margin.)

binding: Late eighteenth-century French green crushed morocco (166 x 102 mm) in Directoire style, covers with a border of two thick gilt fillets intersecting at corners, smooth spine gilt-ruled to six compartments, the second lettered, the other gilt with urn and palm-leaf tools, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. (Extremities rubbed, spine slightly dulled.)

provenance: Antoine d'Arbaud of Antibes, sixteenth-century ownership inscription repeated several times in Greek and Latin on title- and final page, e.g.: "Antonius Arbaudus Antipolitanus, 1522 decimo sexto kal. oct." acquisition: Purchased from Fiammetta Soave, Rome, 1995. references: UCLA 60.5; Adams S1438; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 62; Edit16 36139; Grolier/Aldus 36, 37; Renouard 34/6; USTC 857020