C. Plinii Secundi Novocomensis: Epistolar(um) libri decem, in quibus multae habentur epistolae non ante impressae...
Venice: Aldi, et Andreae Asulani soceri [Aldine Press], 1508.
The first Aldine Press edition of Pliny's letters, and the first book to include Asulanus (Andrea Torresani) as Aldus' partner on the colophon. Octavo, *8 **4 a-z8 aa-kk8. [xxiv]; 525, [3] pp. (46 '47', 47 '46', 119 '129', 206 '106', 210 '120', 226 '194', 245 '24', 250 '218', 254 '222', 258 '158', 274 '247', 373 '341', 457 '451', 461 '462', 497 '49', 508 '580'). Printed on laid paper, text in Latin, colophon and Aldine device at rear. Bound in 18th century polished calf, decorative gilt tooling, morocco title label and emblems to spine. All edges stained yellow, marbled endpapers, green silk ribbon marker. UCLA Aldine Press 100, USTC 849906.
Near Fine with shallow chipping to spine ends and loss of 3 morocco spine emblems, darkening to upper textblock edge; joints rubbed and starting at upper ends. Armorial bookplate of Lewis Montolieu, 3rd Baron St Hippolyte to front pastedown, worming to lower right corner of title page. Occasional faint foxing to contents, Latin marginalia in old hand throughout, trimmed short for present binding. Binding very firm; a solid copy, attractively marked by a reader whose title page inscription is dated 1605.
Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) founded what was to become the most important Renaissance printing press in Venice around 1490. His first dated publication was a book of Greek grammar, to which Aldus added his own Latin translations. He had been an independent scholar and a tutor to the young princes of Capri, and he saw a need for a new kind of book: a pocket-sized volume of classical literature, something relatively affordable and very portable that a gentleman could take with him on his travels. With support from the two princes and financial backing from Andrea Torresani d’Asola, whose daughter he married in 1505, Aldus set out to print Greek texts for the first time – “building a library which knows no walls save those of the world itself,” in the words of his friend Erasmus. By the time he died in 1515, his books were famous across Europe.
To cover their costs, Aldus and his successors had to print in large runs of a thousand copies instead of the usual 250 or fewer. They also had to fit as much text on the page as possible. Aldus worked with the punch-cutter Francesco Griffo to create a slanting font modeled on the handwriting of papal chancery scribes. This condensed typeface, first used in an edition of Virgil in 1501, became known as italics after it spread through Europe. The newness of the innovation can be traced in this scarce book, published in Aldus’ lifetime: they had not yet found a good way to italicize uppercase letters.
Price: $12,500