92
●
PLATO.
Omnia Platonis opera.
Greek text, edited by Aldus Manutius
and Marcus Musurus. [32], 502; 439, [1] pages; lacks the final blank in Volume 1.
2
volumes. Folio, 312x198 mm, contemporary English(?) quartered oak boards,
resewn with spine uncovered, modern vellum endleaves, contents unobtrusively
washed, with residual soiling and old scored inscriptions on title; and 301x200
mm, contemporary German pigskin over wooden boards, blind-tooled to panel
design filled in with “laus deo” and rosette stamps, brass catches and clasps, top of
spine worn, minor stains on fore edges, few wormholes in blank lower margin of
opening leaves, few early marginalia; cloth folding cases. Volume 1 with signature
of Thomas Colm of Oxford dated 1573, 17th-century ownership inscription of
Hendricus Ffeild, and 19th-century bookplate and stamp of King Edward’s
School, Birmingham; Volume 2 with early ownership inscriptions of Johannes (or
Johann?) Lang of Erfurt and Philippus Kleissenius.
(
Venice: House of Aldus and Andrea of Asola,
September 1513)
[30,000/50,000]
FIRST EDITION IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK
of the works of Plato, one of the most
important productions of the Aldine press and the last of the Greek first editions
produced under the supervision of Aldus. Renouard, pages 62(4); New UCLA 114.
The boards on Volume 1 display characteristics of bindings in Greek style (“alla
Greca”) popular among humanist collectors of Greek texts in the first half of the
16
th-century, primarily in Italy, where they were produced by Greek émigré crafts-
men using their native techniques.
