Plato (427!347 BC)

PLATONIS OPERA Tralatione Marsilii Ficini, Emendatione et add Graecum Codicem Collatione, Simonis Grynaei, Nunc recens Summa Diligentia Repurgata

      Paris: Venundantur ab Ioanne Parvo & Iodoco Badio, 1533 (colophon:) impressa sunt solertiore cura in aedibus Ascensianis Anno domini MDXXXIII (1533) Quinto Kalendas Iuanias. Deo Gratiae.. A Rare and Very Early Printing of PlatoOs works An early printing outside of Italy and by the first Parisian printers of the Opera which they published first in 1518, (only the second of the 16th century and the fourth of all printings). Dedicated by Ficino to Lorenzo deO Medici and reproduced from the Venetian edition of B. de Choris, 1491. With contemporary ownership signatures on the title-page. Very finely engraved and illustrated title-page with superb Renaissance decorative borders incorporating allegorical figures at the center, a very beautiful engraving of Iehan PetitOs heraldic shield incorporating fleurs de lys and initials surrounded by lions within a forest scene, very fine and ornate capital letters throughout in black with xilographic decoration, and with contemporary ownership inscription on the title. Folio (320 x 223 mm) in eights, full calf, the spine with title on a red morocco lettering label. 12 unnumbered folio leaves + 781 pp. A fine, large, clean copy with wide and ample margins.. BY THE PRINTERS OF THE FIRST PLATO OFFERED OUTSIDE OF ITALY AND A VERY EARLY PRINTING OF THE 1500OS. A very beautiful and important production of Ficino's great Latin translation of PlatoN"still the best translation of that author Italy can boast" (Britannica). Ficino began his translation in 1466 from a manuscript supplied by his patron, Cosimo de'Medici, and by Amerigo Benci. During its progress Ficino submitted sections for review to Angelo Poliziano, Cristofor Landino, Demetrios Chalchondylas and others, which served to refine the work. Preceeded with the dedication of the great curator S. Grynaeus, the proem dedication to Lorenzo de Medici and the important Life of Plato written by Ficino the original translator of the manuscripts into Latin; index at the end; 36 of the Platonic dialogues and works(the Dialogues, 10 books of the Republic, 12 books of the Laws and 12 of the Letters), edited and with the commentary of Marsilio Ficino. A highly important edition of the Opera of Plato with the traslation of Marsilio Ficino, the first and most important of the modern epoch, in itself one of the primary movers of the humanism of the Renaissance. In 1462 by order and gift of Cosimo de Medici and with support of the Academy the manuscript translations were begun. They were concluded under the beneficence of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The translation, which was completed in the 1470's contributed in great measure to the rediscovery of critical thinking and of the disciplines of Greek scholarship. Ficino had beuan his translation under the patronage of Cosimo de Medici in 1463. The work was completed five years later and circulated in manuscript for several years before finally being printed in parts beginning in 1484. It wasn't until 1491 that and edition brought together for the first time the fundamental text of Plato with FicinoOs PLATONICA THEOLOGIA, the most important Renaissance interpretation of the great philosopher. In this groundbreaking work Ficino sets out to prove that a harmony can be found between Christian theology and Platonism. The conversion of these two modes of thought, the classic and the medieval was instrumental in the formation of the modern European identity. The importance Ficino placed on this work even extended to the printing and he was not pleased with the first edition which contained 7 pages of corrigenda. In contrast, Ficino was very pleased with the typographical correctness of the later 1491 edition and this printing in large measure comes with the most important of the textual corrections and emendations and changes. The editio princeps from the Greek texts was provided by Aldus in 1513. This edition was with the rich and important corrections of Grynaeus from one of the early Greek manuscripts. A beautiful and very pleasing example in a rarely encountered period binding with early ownership note on the title. A rare book and very important in the history of Greek and philosophical scholarship