Aedibus Aldi, 1521

GREEK ANTHOLOGY – Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum. Venice: Heirs of Aldus and Andreas Torresanus, January 1521.

A heavily annotated copy of the second Aldine edition of the Planudean Greek Anthology. This ancient collection of Greek poetry was compiled in antiquity by Meleager of Gadara, but survives here in the recension of the Byzantine grammarian Maximus Planudes. The present copy is annotated in both Greek and Italian by an early hand, primarily consisting of (original?) poetry on a variety of subjects, including ancient myth and history, medicine, and “la diavoleria del vinolo,” and mentioning contemporary figures like Alfonso d’Este. UCLA 171; Renouard Alde 93:17. See Clemons & Fletcher 40 (1503 edition).

Octavo (162 x 96mm). Greek types. Aldine device in woodcut on title (lacking final leaf with Aldine device; large chip to blank margin of p. 2, some light waterstaining and spots). 19th-century marbled calf, morocco title label; "EPGR" in ink on top and bottom edges (wear to corners, front joint starting). Provenance: extensive marginalia in Greek and Italian – Domus professus, Naples (inscription on title) – remains of removed bookplate – Louis Francis (L.F.) Anderson (1861-1950, Classics professor at Whitman College and son of the college’s first president; letter from bookseller Alfred A. Post dated 1903).