Bolzanio, Urbano Dalle Fosse, called | First edition of Bolzanio's Greek grammar

Bolzanio, Urbano Dalle Fosse, called

Institutiones graecae grammatices. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, January 1497

4to (207 x 150 mm). 214 leaves (a¹⁰ b-z⁸ &⁸ A⁸ B¹⁰ [C]²), 27 lines (28 for errata), Roman and Greek type, woodcut initials and diagrams; title spotted and browned, scattered foxing, early annotations washed. Nineteenth-century red straight-grained morocco, covers with double gilt rules and gilt aldine devices at center, spine with semi-raised bands in six compartments, second gilt-lettered, other with gilt floral and leaf device, all edges gilt, inner dentelles with gilt Greek key pattern, marbled endpapers; instances of staining, rubbed with some loss, joints weak with split near head of spine.

The Syston Park copy of the 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).

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.

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; G. Della Rocca de Candal, Gerry, “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

PROVENANCE:

Sir John Hayford Thorold, 10^th Baronet of Syston Park Hall, Lincolnshire (armorial bookplate to front pastedown), thence by descent to — Sir John Henry Thorold, 12^th Baronet (his sale, Sotheby's London, 20 December 1884, lot 1975)