STATIUS, Publius Papinius. Statii Syluarum libri quinque, Thebaidos libri duodecim, Achilleidos duo [Latin and Greek]. Venice, Aldo Manuzio, August 1502
8vo, 156 x 97 mm. Early sixteenth-century dark brown morocco blind tooled in mudejar style, edges gilt and gauffered to a diapered pattern with circles. Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. Collation: a-e8 2a-z8 A-F8 G4 2A-B8 2C4: 40, 256 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to e8, guide letters in initial spaces. Very small wormholes to first and last leaves. Joints and spine cracked, corners worn, worming to covers and spine.
First Aldine edition, complete copy of the Orthography part. Very rare first issue, recognizable by an error at the colophon: "cautum est et in hoc" instead of "cautum est in hoc".
Renouard, who reports the correct Colophon, notes about this edition: “Pour que ce volume soit complet, il faut en outre une partie separée de 40 feuillets, qui se trouve tanto au commencement, tanto a la fin avec ce titre en capitals: « Orthographia … » avec l’ancre a la fin.” (To be complete, this volume must include a separate part of 40 sheets, which is found sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end, with this title in capitals: « Orthographia … » with the anchor at the end.)
The edition includes all of Statius' existing works: 'Sylvae' is a collection of occasional poems dedicated to events such as the construction of an imperial statue, a wedding, bathing, a tree, the hair of a eunuch and more; the epic poem ‘Thebaidos’" narrates the power struggle between two brothers for the throne of Thebes, after the death of King Oedipus; ‘Achilleidos’ was supposed to tell the story of Achilles from his youth to his death in Troy, but was left unfinished at the death of Statius.
Aldus's Orthographia, with a dedication to the humanist Marcus Musurus, lists in alphabetical order all the Greek loans used by Statius, providing Greek synonyms and Latin meanings.
Renouard 35:7; USTC 857455; Edit16 36141; Ahmanson-Murphy 61; Dibdin I, pp. 367-8.