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8vo. (88), (116) lvs. Two different woodcut devices. The poem "Pelekus" ("axe" / fol.m1 verso) is surrounded by a border formed as a Minoan double axe - head, the poem "Surligx" ("pan-pipe"/ fol. i8 verso) by a border looking like a pan-pipe. In the case of the poem "Pteruglos" ("wing"/ fol.m 3 recto) the printer choosed a surrounding looking like a wing; on fol. m3 verso he used a border formed as a podium. Complete and printed in the original Greek. 18the century morocco binding (corners knocked [with occasional loss], some rubbing, new spine) with gilt-stamped rules to leading edges. First Theocritus edition with commentary, at the same time first edition of the Epigrams, some Idylls as well as the two poems "Axe" and "Pair of wings". Two variations of this edition are described in the British COPAC Catalogue: one has the word "enestin" on the title page lacking the Sigma, the other has been correctly printed. Additionally the former lacks the Latin privilege on the reverse of the last page, whereas this is present in the latter edition. The example offered here is "to our knowledge an unrecorded - third variant: title page lacking the Sigma (the missing Sigma has been added by hand in later ink), Latin privilege on the reverse of the last page present. The missing Sigma indicates an early printing before correction. Zacharias Kallierges (c. 1473 - post-1524), "the most important Greek printer" (Graecogermania p. 75) settled in Rome from 1524 â " following two periods working as a printer in Venice and intermediate employment as a copyist of Greek manuscripts. In Rome he founded the first publishing house to use the Greek typescript. He was born into one of the most respected Cretian families and enjoyed an excellent humanistic education. This enabled him to collect together commentaries on Theocritus and to publish them (and thereby setting the trend for countlesss subsequent editions of Theocritus which repeatedly reprinted his Scholia). The Theocritus-Edition is Kallierges' second published work while in Rome (after the Pindar edition of 1515), only the fourth edition of the Greek lyri-cist, and the first to include the Scholia and the epigrams. Theocritus (born pre-300 B.C. in Sy-racuse, died post-260), spent part of his literary life in Alexandria (where he met Kallimachos) and some of his time on the island of Kos; little in the way of biographical information is known about him. The term "Idyllic" refers largely to the Scholia of Theocritus, although this does not refer to the "bucolic poetry" of later, but of "short pieces" generally; the origin of the term re-mains a mystery. Theocritus introduced the idea of bucolic poems to literature and in doing so, began a trend: Vergil was amongst his imitators and he, in turn, became the inspiration for lyri-cists producing this form of bucolic po etry to this day. "Whereas Vergil described an idealistic pastoral life in an Arcadian landscape, Thus, his poetry is full of quotations and allusions, but also exploits ironic distance and the attempts to ignore standard limita-tions und to break traditional rules (see Effe in appendix to the Tusc.-edition). Front end-paper with paper defect and a paper strip with a poem, dated "1816", front fly-leaf with hand-writen entry. Title with ownership entry (Aeg. Delaunay), some hand-written old marginalia in Greek. Slightly browned throughout, minor staining, small tears (worming) in lower margin to ca. 15 leaves (some of them restored, all not affecting text). A well preserved copy of this im-portant imprint. Censimento 16: CNCE 32693 (7 copies in Italy); Legrand I, 49 ( Édition rare et très recherchée ); Graecogermania 42; Hoffmann III, 474; Schweiger I, 309 ( sehr seltene und gesuchte Ausg. ); BMSTC (Italian Books) 667; Adams T 460; Staikos 29 (with illustr.). Seller Inventory # 2157
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