Simplicius, De Coelo, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1526, eighteenth-century English brown diced Russia (Roger Payne?)

SIMPLICIUS. Simplikiou Hypomnemata eis tessara biblia Aristotelous peri ouranou, meta tou ypokeimenou tou autou. Simplicij Commentarii in quatuor Aristotelis libros De coelo cum textu eiusdem [Greek]. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, January 1526

FIRST EDITION of "Commentaries on Aristotle's De Caelo", a critical work of Aristotelian commentary, reflecting Simplicius' important contributions to the interpretation of Aristotle's cosmology. In this text, Simplicius defends and expands upon Aristotle's theories of the heavens. Later same year and under the same editorship of Andrea Torresano, the Aldine press issued Simplicii commentarii in octo Aristotelis Physicae auscultationes libros, and in 1527, under the editorship of Gian Francesco Torresano, it published Simplicii commentaria in tres libros Aristotelis De Anima. 

Folio (307 x 206 mm). Greek type, 51 lines plus headline. Collation: *4 A-K8 L4 M-Q8 R6 S-X8 Y10: 175 leaves (of 176, lacks blank *4). Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and final verso, guide letters in initial spaces. (Paper remnants to gutter of *2, leaves washed.)

Binding: Eighteenth-century English brown diced Russia (Roger Payne?) (317 x 217 mm), frame of single gilt fillet, rosette in corners, brown endpapers, two gilt fillets around turn-ins, gilt edges. (Head and foot of spine and joints rubbed, small area of worming to lower turn-in of upper cover.)

Provenance: Guy Piers Le Gendre Starkie (1909-1985), Huntroyde, Lancashire; his sale, Sotheby's London, 29-30 October 1962, lot 316; purchased by — Martin Breslauer, London — Dr. John D. Stanitz (1920-2011) — Sotheby's New York, 25 April 1984, lot 399. Acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via Martin Breslauer Inc. References: UCLA 241 (as January 1527); Renouard 102/3; Edit16 47829; USTC 856492