AESCHYLUS (c.525-455). Tragoediae VIII. Edited by Henri Estienne and Piero Vettori. [Geneva:] Henri II Estienne, 1557.

"First complete edition of Aeschylus, including the editio princeps of the Agamemnon, the greatest Aeschylean tragedy, and one of the great masterpieces of Western dramatic literature" (Schreiber). Aeschylus is the earliest extant Greek tragedian, and his Oresteia, appearing here complete for the first time, is the only surviving dramatic trilogy from ancient Athens. According to Moss, "notwithstanding the great merits of this edition, with regard to the excellence of its readings, the accuracy and elegance of its typography, and the fact of its being the first edition in which the Agamemnon is given complete, and that part of the Choephoroi which had been confused with the Agamemnon is restored to its proper order; it meets with not the attention it deserves." Estienne further corrected the text, which Pietro Vettori had restored based on a manuscript in the Laurenziana, and added 40 pages of his own erudite notes. It is printed in two sizes of Garamond's elegant grec du roi. In this copy, Henri's name has been deleted in every instance—likely in response to his inclusion in the Index as an "auctor damnatus" due to his Calvinism. Schreiber 145; Moss p. 8.

Quarto (236 x 156mm). Greek and Roman types. Woodcut printer's device on title (title page with neatly repaired tear through woodcut device, a little toning and staining throughout, small wormtrack at bottom edge of a few leaves). 18th-century calf with gilt dentelles in Greek key pattern, edges gilt (rebacked). Provenance: a few early marginal corrections and deletions, as well as later pencil annotations in Greek.