CRASTONUS, Johannes, or Giovanni Crastone).

Rare first Aldine edition of this celebrated Greek-Latin dictionary, together with various Greek philological texts, Dictionarium graecum copiosissimum secundum ordinem alphabeti cum interpretatione latina. Cyrilli opusculum de dictionibus, quae variato accentu mutant significatum secundum ordinem alphabeti cum interpretatione latina.Ammonius de differentia dictionum per literarum ordinem.Vetus instructio & denominationes praefectorum militum.Significata tou u. Significata tou os.Index oppido quam copiosus, docens latinas dictiones ferè omneis graece dicere & multas etiam multis modis.

      Aldus I Manutius, December 1497., Venice. - Folio. Later vellum with title ('Dicion. Graeca Latin') written in an Italian hand on the spine, remains of ties. Small woodcut initial on f. O1; text printed in 2 cols. of 42 lines (Index in 3 cols. with 55 lines). 244 lvs, including the last blank. Colophon: a-k8, l10, A-K8, L10, M8, N10, O8, p-r8, s6, t8. Rare first Aldine edition of this celebrated Greek-Latin dictionary, originally composed by Johannes Crastonus (ca. 1420-1498) on the basis of an older dictionary by Constantino Lascaris. Together with Marcus Musurus, Aldus has re-published the first edition of Crastonus's work which had been printed by Bonus Accursius in Milan ca. 1478. A second edition was printed in 1483 by Dionysius Bertholus in Vicenza, the first dictionary with the word Lexicon in its title.In his preface (edited by Renouard, pp. 13-4) Aldus doesn't mention the name of the author Crastonus, reason why Aldus is often considered to be the author. He is, however, only responsible for composing the Latin index at the end. In this index Aldus refers to the number of the leaf and line of the Greek dictionary. It is strange, however, that the leaves are not numbered. In his preface (f. 202v) Aldus gives the advice to start with numbering the leaves: 'nota tibi in extremitate libri arithmeticis numeris singulas chartes' ! And indeed our copy is numbered in a contemporary hand from 1-200. Added are several Greek philological texts:Contents:- f. 1r: Title.- f. 1v: Preface by Aldus: 'Aldus Manutius Romanus studiosis omnibus S.P.D.', concluded by two Greek poems by Scipio Fortiquerre (1466-1515) and Markos Musuros (1470-1517).- f. 2r-171v: Greek-Latin dictionary.- f. 171v-181r: (on the title: Cyrillus, but is:) Johannes Philoponus, Collectio dictionum quae differunt significatu secundum ordinem alphabeti.- f. 181v-198r: Ammonius, Hermias, De differentia dictionum per literarum ordinem. (f. 198v: blank).- f. 199r-201v: Vetus instructio & denominationes praefectorum militum.- f. 201v-202r: Two short philological texts: 'Ta tou e semantika' and 'Ta tou oos semantika'.- f. 202v: Aldus preface for the Latin index. -f. 203r-242v: Latin index.- f. 243r-v: catchwords, quire sequence and imprint: 'Venetiis in aedibus Aldi Manutii, Romani Decembri mense M. IIID. Et in hoc quod in caeteris nostris ab Ill. S. V. concessum nobis'.- f. 244: blank. Very good copy with 16th-century (?) ownership's entry in Latin and Greek charaxcters on the title: 'Ludus La Motte', and some 16th and 17th-century annotations, the latter by Padre Derio (on the first fly-leaf occurs the note 'Revisto per il Padre Derio 1629'.- (Half loose, some worm holes towards the end (partly skilfully repaired)). Renouard, Annales Alde, p. 13, nr. 7 (".belle et très rare"); GW 7814; HC* 6151; BMC V, 558; Goff C-960; Proctor 5561; Pell. 4042; Lefèvre 150; Polain (B) 1202; IDL 1424; IGI 3256; Vouillième (B) 4496; Sack (Freiburg) 1188; Walsch, 15th-cent. printed books Harvard 2655-7; Sheenan, Vaticana C-465; Oates 2180; Rhodes (Oxford Colleges) 637; Lowry, The world of Aldus Manutius, p. 112, 114-5; N. Barker, Aldus Manutius and the development of Greek script & type in the 15th century (with original lvs. from the first Aldine editions of . Crastonus' Dictionarium) (1985); on Crastone: Diz. biogr. degli Italiani 30, pp. 578-80. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]