HERODOTUS.

Herodoti libri novem quibus Musarum indita sunt nomina.

      Venice; In domo Aldi, 1502. EDITIO PRINCEPS. Ff [cxv]. AA[Alpha]AA - PP[Rho]RR8, SS[Sigma]SS4. Greek letter, Aldus' anchor and dolphin device on t-p and on verso of last, capital spaces with guide letters at beginning of each book, very occasional contemporary marginal notes and underlinings, early ms. pagination. T-p dusty at outer corners, tiny wormhole affecting just a few letters on verso, old paper repair to lower blank portion, occasional very minor marginal waterstain to a few leaves. A very good, clean copy with excellent margins in vellum over boards c.1600. The superb Editio Princeps of the works of Herodotus, 'The Father of History,' published and edited by Aldus Manutius, on the basis of numerous manuscripts as he stresses in his dedication to Giovanni Calfurnio da Brescia, and one of his finest and most important productions. The work recounts the history of the great Persian invasion of Greece between 490 and 479BC but two thirds of it is devoted to the earlier history of the two protagonists, touching on many of the adjacent countries as well, and describing them and their people in considerable detail, Everything about this edition was attended to with the greatest care, from the typography and layout to the superior quality of the paper and impression, and the editing of the manuscript sources. Aldus valued Herodotus not only for his 'sweet, candid and flowing language', but also for the merit of his contributions to the study of the past and foreign cultures. He defends the study of Herodotus and sets the stage for his popularity in the 16th C. We do not know when and how the Histories were first written down,; very likely they arose out of recitations or readings that Herodotus gave over a number of years both in other Greek cities and in Athens at the height of its Imperial power. The works of Herodotus created an intellectual field that we still call by the name Herodotus gave his own investigations; historie or history. The magnitude of Herodotus; achievement as the first historian is hard to appreciate, however, precisely because the genre he invented became so important to our own thinking about the world, it is difficult to imagine it not existing. His history constructs a huge roadmap of the known human world, past and present, in which everything is linked through story to everything else. He weaves a dense web of casual connections, created in a large part by personal reciprocities, than span generations and cultures. 'Herodotus is the earliest historian; his predecessors were by contrast chroniclers. He was the first to collect his materials systematically, to test their accuracy as far as he could, and to arrange his story so as to appeal to, as well as to inform, his readers certainly for the Persian war his authority forms the basis of all modern histories; and, more than that, it is the stuff of legends. Herodotus is far more than a valuable source: always readable, his work has been quoted and translated ever since' (PMM). A very good copy of a particularly beautiful and important work. "In the opinion of Wesseling this is a very faithful and accurate edition, compiled with great care, and executed with considerable typographical elegance. Bergler, in Act. Erudit. An. 1716 p.378, ranks it with the very best productions of the Aldine press; and in point of fidelity it is greatly preferable to the Medicean MS so loudly boasted of by Gronovius. M. Renouard abandons the idea which he had first entertained, of there being copies of this work on large or thick paper. He conceives, and perhaps with justice, that the paper, which is of very beautiful quality, is of a uniform size; and that the size of the paper depends on the care of the binder." Dibdin II p.19. BM STC It. P.326. Adams H394. Brunet III 122 'cette première édition d'herodote est l'une des meilleues qu'Alde ait publiées d'aucun grec; l'impression et le papier en sont de toute beauté.' Renouard p.35, 8. Printing and the Mind of Man 4