In Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries

Aristophanes.

Aristophanis Comoediae Novem.

Venetiis: Apud Aldum, 1498 Idibus Quintilis [15 July 1498].

This is the first edition of the Greek text of Aristophanes, edited by Marcus Musurus (ca. 1470-1517), a Greek scholar closely associated with the famous printer Aldus Manutius, and a member of the Aldine “New Academy,” which promoted Greek studies and scholarship. Many of Aldus’ Greek editions were issued under the careful editorship of Musurus. This collection contains only nine plays, as Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae were not printed until the 1515 Florentine edition published by the Giunta family, the manuscripts having been discovered in the library of Federigo da Montefeltro. The great literary merit of Aristophanes is not the sole value of this edition: Musurus asserts in the introduction that these plays serve as a guide to conversational Attic Greek as well. This was only one of the many Greek classics published by Aldus Manutius, editions highly-regarded for their textual accuracy and printed beauty, books that made Aldus the most celebrated publisher of his day.

 

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