‎EURIPIDES. ‎
‎Rhesos (Rhesus) + Troades (The Trojan Women) + Bakchai (Bacchae) + Kyklops (Cyclops) + Herakleidai (Children of Heracles) + Helene (Helen) + Ion + Herakles Mainomenos (Hercules Furens / Heracles). - [EDITIO PRINCEPS OF 8 PLAYS BY EURIPIDES]‎

‎Venice, Aldus, 1503. Small 8vo. A nice, simple, charming full vellum binding with handwritten title and number to spine. Binding with a bit of soiling, but overall lovely. First leaf with stamp of the Gottholdsche Bibliothek and restored with the lower blank part remade with paper pulp, extremely well done. Second leaf with a vague restoration to the lower part, presumably from the removal of a label. Apart from a bit of occasional brownspotting or thumb soiling, very nice and fresh. Early (16th or 17th century) ink marginalia in Greek and Latin to several leaves as well as ink markings in the margins. A few of the marginal notes, mostly to top and bottom, shaved. Later ink annotation (numbering) to inside of front board. Quire signatures partly supplied in early hand throughout. (190) ff. Last leaf with colophon on recto and Aldus' large printer's device to verso. ‎

Reference : 62271

‎Extremely important first printings of eight of Euripides’ tragedies – including the Cyclops, which is the only fully extant example of the genre of satyr play -, the publication that ensured the survival of these seminal Greek dramas. In 1503, Aldus issued in Venice a breakthrough publication in two volumes of all the extant plays of Euripides. Four of these had been previously published (ca. 1495), the rest of the eighteen appeared in this two-volume publication for the first time. The first volume contained 10 plays, among them the four previously published ones, whereas the second volume contained 8 plays, all published here for the first time. We have here the second volume, in a lovely copy, of this seminally important edition, containing eight of Euripides’ plays printed for the first time. As Dibdin says, “[t]his is an Aldine publication, which, more frequently than any with which I am acquainted, is found in an imperfect or indifferent condition. The first copy of it on paper that I ever saw, and bound in the Grolier style, had only the first volume… Earl Spencer has a portion of the second volume uncut…” (Dibdin, I:528). The textual transmission of Euripides’ plays, from the 5th century BC, when they were first written, until the era of the printing press, was a largely haphazard process, and much of Euripides' work was lost or corrupted. It was due to Aldus’ immensely important undertaking that these dramas were preserved for posterity. His of the texts remained the most important until the 18th century. The title-page of volume one states that there are 17 plays altogether (including the four previously published), but in fact there were 18. Hercules Furens had only recently been discovered, and Aldus included it at the last minute, at the end of volume two. Electra does not appear in either of the volumes and was only printed for the first time in 1545. The book is beautifully printed in Greek type throughout, with the elegant typeface by Griffo. Each play is preceded by a half-title with the title in both Greek and Latin, whereas the text itself is only in Greek. Not only the contents of the book is of seminal importance to cultural history, so is the format itself. It is a prime example of the portable book ('libellus portatilis' or 'enchiridion') that would come to revolutionize leaning in the modern world and the reding habits of modern man. “It was Aldus Manutius’ editio princeps of the complete extant works of Euripides, printed in Venice in 1503, which established the most enduring model for Euripides in print. He returned to the familiar cursive, using the fourth instantiation of his innovative lower-case Greek type, which had premiered in his Sophocles the previous year. This had been simplified somewhat in comparison to previous versions, and was attractive, clear, and easy to read. Both the Sophocles and the Euripides formed part of one of Aldus’ most famous innovations: the classical library in the portable octavo format. The Aldine octavos were not necessarily cheaper than larger volumes a catalogue from 1503 with Aldus’ manuscript additions including prices (dated to 1505) indicates that the two-volume Euripides sold for 1 ducat 3 lire, which H. George Fletcher estimates might be a week’s salary for a secretary or teacher, still a luxury item. But the smaller format took books out of the library and into the world these texts, presented by themselves without learned commentaries, were aimed not at cloistered academics but at the educated gentleman, perhaps holding a political office, and the travelling scholar. Many of these editions are dedicated to teachers of Greek (including the Euripides, to Demetrius Chalcondyles), suggesting that Aldus also envisaged them playing a role in education. Where previously students had been reliant on what a lecturer told them about a text, now they were encouraged to have their own copies, as is reflected in the many references to students in the prefatory materials.” (Shakespeare and the Renaissance Reception of Euripides, p. 63). Lowry:142, 145, 152 Grolier:38 (erroneusly stating 198 ff. leaves instead of 190) Ahmanson-Murphy:69 Dibdin I:524-26 Renouard:43-44. ‎