Aristoteles, Opera, etc. (1495–98) — Gallery of Early Printed Books

Opening leaf with Aldus's Greek epigram to friends — Vol. I, fol. 1r (leaf 00005): the prefatory Greek verses — an anonymous epigram on Aristotle's Organon, one by Scipio Carteromachus (Forteguerri), and Aldus's own address "ΑΛΔΟΥ ΜΑΝΟΥΚΙΟΥ … ΕΙΣ ΦΙΛΟΥΣ" closing "ΕΡΡΩΣΘΕ". Display capitals over the cursive lower-case, with the BSB "Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis" stamp.

Dense page of Greek text — Vol. I, fol. 2r (leaf 00007): a full page of running Greek showing the even grey of Griffo's cursive fount — the heavy ligaturing, contextual variants and abbreviations carried over from the scribal minuscule.

Decorated text-opening of Porphyry's Isagoge — Vol. I, fol. 3r (leaf 00009, sig. A iii): the decorated text-opening of the volume — the start of Porphyry's *Isagoge*, the standard introduction to Aristotle's Organon. A woodcut interlace headpiece runs above the heading ΠΟΡΦΥΡΙΟΥ ΕΙΣΑΓΩΓΗ, with a large ornamental initial Ν opening the text. Aldine editions of this date carry no title page; the work begins directly with this ornamented incipit.

Section headings with contemporary marginalia — Vol. I (leaf 00020): chapter headings ΠΕΡΙ ΙΔΙΟΥ / ΠΕΡΙ ΣΥΜΒΕΒΗΚΟΤΟΣ set in spaced capitals, with a contemporary reader's Greek annotations in the margin.

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The Aldine editio princeps of Aristotle in Greek — five folio volumes issued 1495–98, the first complete printing of the corpus and the founding monument of Greek typography. To set it Aldus used the great cursive Greek fount cut by Francesco Griffo, modelled on the contemporary Byzantine minuscule of his Cretan scholars (Marcus Musurus and others): a hand-imitating type running to roughly 1,400 sorts — base letters, contextual variants, ligatures, abbreviations and stacked diacritics — which is exactly why early Aldine Greek looks so beautiful yet so irregular. Beyond the Aristotelian text the volumes also carry Galen, Philo Judaeus, Theophrastus and Alexander of Aphrodisias.

References

ISTC ia00959000

Why it is remarkable

Editio princeps of Aristotle in Greek — the first printed edition of the complete corpus, the textual foundation for every later Renaissance Aristotle.
Founding monument of Greek printing — the most ambitious Greek typographic project of the 15th century, and the showcase of the cursive Aldine Greek fount (Griffo, after Musurus's hand) that defined Greek type for a generation until Garamond's grecs du roi displaced it.
The largest, most demanding undertaking of the early Aldine press — a multi-year, five-volume scholarly programme that established Aldus as the printer of Greek learning.

Catalogue references

ISTC ia00959000 · GW 2334 · Goff A959 · HC 1657* · BMC V 553–558 · BSB-Ink A-698 · IGI 791
Ahmanson-Murphy (Aldine census) 4, 11, 21, 23, 24

Facsimiles (BSB, complete 5-volume set)

Vol. I — bsb00045766
Vol. II — bsb00045767
Vol. III — bsb00045770
Vol. IV — bsb00045773
Vol. V — bsb00045775

The ISTC record lists 18 digital resources in all (the full BSB set above plus further library copies).

Aristoteles, Opera, etc.

Details

Facsimiles

Images

References

Why it is remarkable

Catalogue references

Facsimiles (BSB, complete 5-volume set)