Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, Venice, Aldo, 1495 (Greek text), interleaved with 1497–1498 (Latin text), English olive morocco by Charles Lewis, the Botfield copy

Musaeus Grammaticus. Musaei Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, quod et in latinam linguam ad uerbum tralatum est. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, [before November 1495 (Greek text); 1497–1498 (Latin text)])

"Hero and Leander" by the sixth-century Byzantine poet Musaeus, long thought to be pre-Homeric and highly influential throughout Renaissance Europe, with early vernacular translations into Italian (by Bernardo Tasso), Spanish (Joan Boscà i Almogàver), and French (Clément Marot). 

First edition of the Latin text; second edition of the Greek text (ISTC dates the only possible earlier edition, from the Florentine press of Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, to "about 1494–96"); first Aldine imprint with illustrations; and, in the instance of the Greek text, just the second book printed by Aldo, preceded only by Lascaris's Erotemata (and possibly by the Galeomyomachia of Prodromus). “The Greek and Latin texts were printed on separate quires which were then folded so that the texts appear in parallel. The Greek portion is shown by Aldus' prefatory letter to have been printed before the first volume of Aristotle, dated 1 Nov. 1495. The Latin is printed in two post-1495 types, one of which has a paragraph mark not traced before 1497” (BMC, based on Proctor, Printing of Greek, pp. 95–96). 

"As promised in the title, this short Greek poem on the star-crossed lovers Hero and Leander includes a word-for-word Latin translation by Aldus in order to foster the study of the Greek language through a more familiar tongue" Grolier/Aldus). The translation was formerly attributed to Marcus Musurus, two of whose epigrams are here printed, but the printer's copy of Aldo's autograph manuscript, collected first by Johannes Cuno (1463–1513) and then by Beatus Rhenanus (1485–1547), survives in the Bibliothèque Humaniste, Sélestat.

The facing woodcut illustrations depict Leander swimming across the Hellespont from Abydos to join Hero and the climactic moment when Hero, seeing her exhausted lover drowned, leaps from her tower in Sestos to join him in death.

Renouard found that the order of the Latin leaves varies in different copies; in the present copy they are in the order given by Renouard. The Botfield-Brooker copy is an early issue, retaining manuscript stop-press corrections to both the Greek and Latin texts on b2r, b3r, α3v, b8v, α7v, and b9r: see Curt Bühler, "Aldus Manutius and His First Edition of the Greek Musaeus," in La Bibliofilía 52 (1950), pp. 123-127; reprinted in Early Books and Manuscripts (New York 1973), pp. 162-169. This copy does not have the correction called for by Bühler on α1; however, the correction present here on b8v (correcting grauisonis to grauisoni) was not noted by Bühler nor in the Botfield catalogue. The correction was also not known to Geri Della Rocca de Candal, who examined 26 of the 53 recorded copies of the book, 11 more copies than Bühler.

Super-chancery 4to (206 x 155 mm). Greek and roman types, 20 lines plus headline. collation: αb^10.12: 22 leaves (the Greek text of ca. 1495 interleaved with the Latin text of ca. 1497–1498). Two woodcut illustrations on b6v-7r, woodcut interlace headpiece and initials opening text on b2v and α2r. (Scattered light soiling and spotting, chiefly marginal, very short fore-edge tear to b5 mended, tiny filled rusthole in final leaf not affecting text.) 

binding: English olive morocco (212 x 160 mm) by Charles Lewis (1786-1836, shop continued by widow until 1854), stamp-signed on front flyleaf, covers paneled with black fillets and gilt fleuron cornerpieces, central panels with ovoid cartouche built from black foliate tools and curvilinear fillets, upper cartouche gilt-lettered with title, lower with large stamp of the anchor and dolphin device lettered ALDVS, spine in six compartments, ruled in black, each containing a gilt leaf tool, pale yellow endpapers, gilt edges. (Slightest rubbing to extremities.)  

provenance: Unidentified owner, bibliographical note in Italian written on front flyleaf, mentioning the Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne copy as fetching the "exorbitant" price of 550 French francs in 1792, and citing Renouard — Payne & Foss, London; A catalogue of books in various languages (London, 1840), p. 113, item 2161 (£18 18s") — Beriah Botfield (1807-1863), acquired from Payne & Foss, £21 ("P. & F. Acquisitions p. 64"); left, with his other possessions, to — his wife, Isabella, for the remainder of her life (1832-1911), then passed to — Lord Alexander Thynne, third son of the 4th Marquess of Bath (1873-1918) — his sister, Lady Beatrice Thynne (1867-1941) — Thomas Henry Thynne, 5th Marquess of Bath (1862-1946); Botfield's library, with other property, moved from Norton Hall to Longleat House, 1946, eventually coming under the auspices of — the Trustees of the Longleat Chattels Settlement; Christie's London, Printed books and manuscripts from Beriah Botfield's library at Longleat, London, 13 June 2002, lot 46 (£94,650) acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via Robin Halwas references: UCLA 19 (cf. 2 for the separate Greek edition); Aldo Manuzio tipografa 3; BMC V 552 (IA 24387; BMC XII 39); Goff M880; Grolier/Aldus 3 (this copy); GW M25737; ISTC im00880000; Renouard 257/3; Geri Della Rocca de Candal, “Manus Manutii: A Preliminary Checklist of Typographical and Manuscript Interventions in Aldine Incunabula (1495-1500),” in Printing and Misprinting: A Companion to Mistakes and In-House Corrections in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650) (Oxford 2023), pp.157-158