Suidas. Lexikon. Venice, Aldus, 1514. later calf

SUIDAS

Το μεν παρον βιβλιον, Σουιδα. Οι δε συνταξαμενοι τουτο, ανδρες σοφοι. (Venice: in the house of Aldus, and Andrea Torresani, February 1514)

Super-Chancery folio (316 x 201mm.), text in Greek, woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank), nineteenth-century diced russia with blind-tooled borders, slipcase, title-leaf repaired in gutter, small repair to corner of final leaf, rebacked retaining original spine

Second edition of this encyclopedic thesaurus of the Greek language, originally compiled around the year 1000 and edited for publication by Demetrius Chalcondylas in Milan in 1499. The Aldine edition was produced alongside many other dictionaries and grammars, including Hesychius's fifth-century Lexicon (see lot 3) which was used by the compilers of the Suidas.

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 121; Edit16 37492; Renouard 1515/11; UCLA 101

PROVENANCE:

extract from an English sale catalogue pasted to inside front cover, price £1-10s; William, 6th Lord Monson (1796-1862), sale, Sotheby's, 6 June 2013, lot 240