Bolzanio, Institutiones graecae grammatices, Venice, Aldus, 1497, navy morocco by Kalthoeber

BOLZANIO, URBANO DALLE FOSSE, CALLED. Institutiones graecae grammatices. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, January 1497

FIRST EDITION of Bolzanio's Greek grammar, the first to be composed in Latin rather than Greek in order to make it more accessible to students, and written at the behest of Aldo. Bolzanio had studied under Constantine Lascaris before moving to Florence and teaching an impressive array of students, from Giovanni de' Medici to Scipione Forteguerri. It was dedicated by Aldo to Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola.

Three versions of a list of errata are known. The present copy contains the first version described by Renouard (designated “A” by Geri Della Rocca de Candal, and located by him in 29 of 40 copies examined): 2 leaves containing 4 pages of corrections (28 lines per page); the other variants (“B” and “C”), notably rarer, have respectively 4 pages (35 lines per page) and 6 pages of corrections (37 lines per page). Just five of the examined copies contained no errata list (G. Della Rocca de Candal, “Manus Manutii: A Preliminary checklist of typographical and manuscript interventions in Aldine incunabula (1495-1500)” in Printing and Misprinting: A Companion to Mistakes and In-House Corrections in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650) (Oxford 2023), pp.142-143).

As the announcement of the publication of this work was made in 1496, it is likely that the colophon date of January 1497 is not more veneto and does indeed refer to 1497 rather than 1498 (see P. Needham, "Counting incunables: the ISTC CD- ROM", Huntington Library Quarterly 61 (2000), 456-529, pp.512-513).

A VERY GOOD COPY WITH DISTINGUISHED PROVENANCE AND A FINE BINDING.

4to (210 x 146 mm). 27 lines (28 for errata), Roman and Greek type. Collation: a¹⁰ b-z⁸ &⁸ A⁸ B¹⁰ [C]²: 214 leaves. Woodcut initials and diagrams. (First quire with washed annotations, resulting in light foxing.)

Binding: Navy morocco by C. Kalthoeber of London (220 x 155 mm), with his orange ticket, gilt fillet border, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, marbled endleaves, a few deckle edges. (Binding slightly rubbed.)

Provenance: Fabrizio de Nobili (probably of Lucca), purchase inscription on title-page dated 1543 — Samuel Butler (1774- 1839), bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, notes on flyleaf, sale, Christie & Manson, 1-10 June 1840, lot 2051, £2-2s — Rev. Charles Lloyd (d. 1862), pencil inscription on flyleaf, sale, Sotheby & Wilkinson, 18 June 1862, lot 575, £1-13s, to Bernard Quaritch — Charles W. Clark, The Library of Charles W. Clark (San Francisco, 1917), III, pp.75-76. Acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1968. References: UCLA 22; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 21; BMC v 558; Goff U66; GW M48900; ISTC iu00066000; Renouard 11/4; Botley, Learning Greek in Western Europe 1396-1529, Appendix 1:20