Xenophon, Apanta ta euriskomena, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1525, sixteenth-century limp vellum with yapps

Xenophon. Xenophontos Apanta ta euriskomena [Greek]. Xenophontis Omnia, quae extant. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, April 1525

First complete edition of the works of Xenophon issued by the Aldine Press. In his preface, the editor Francesco d'Asola implicitly refers, in disparaging terms, to the earlier and incomplete Giunta edition of 1516, suggesting the intense rivalry between the two printing houses.

Folio (308 x 210 mm). Greek type with some roman, 54 lines plus headline. collation: *⁴ A-L⁸ α-ξ⁸ ο⁶: 210 leaves (L8, α1 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and verso of final leaf, contemporary Greek marginalia. (Small marginal tears to title, light foxing, a few dark stains.)

binding: Sixteenth-century limp vellum with yapps (316 x 215 mm), traces of two pairs of chamois ties, flat spine, five leather bands piercing covers at spine, manuscript title at head of spine. (Stained, a few unobtrusive wormholes to covers, repair at foot of spine.)

provenance: Unidentified owner(s), contemporary Greek marginalia, foliated in brown ink — Miss M.A.E. Crofton of Ashford, Co. Wicklow — Sotheby's London, 14–15 November 1960, lot 389; purchased by — Sir Peter Henry Berry Otway Smithers (1913–2006) — Sotheby's London, 5–6 February 1973, lot 167 (realized £450). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via Quaritch. references: UCLA 229; Renouard 100/1; Edit16 55989; USTC 863988