Collection

First edition of the Epigrammata by Maximos Planoudes, the second Greek printed book to have circulated from a Florentine printing house and a landmark in the history of Greek typography (see no 2). The edition underwent general editing by Ianos Laskaris (1444/5-1534), a counsellor of the Medici and indefatigable in the organization of their library. This book, printed at an obscure Florentine printer’s, introduced a new series of fonts based on Laskaris’s handwriting, exclusively in upper case, the famous combination of two sizes of capital letters, with accents and breathings and a series of initial letters for proper names and the first letter of every new epigram. The foreword of the edition is by Laskaris himself «Εἰς τὰ Παλαιὰ Γράμματα» (To the Old Letters), depicting Apollo assigning to the Muses («Χαλκοτύποις σελίσι Μουσῶν») to save the glory of the native land, and to disseminate through the book the poetic heritage of the old and divine country of Greece to the West. The book ends with a lengthy greeting from Laskaris in Latin addressed to Piero dei Medici, wherein extensive mention is made of the origins of the Greek alphabet. Of all the books assigned to Laskaris and printed in Florence (Apollonius Rhodius, Ἀργοναυτικά; Euripides, Τραγωδίαι, Lucian, Dialogi, Cebes, Πίναξ et al., it is the only one that mentions name of the printing house proprietor Lorenzo de Alopa.

Format: 21 cm

Page description: lv. [283]

References: HC 1145 • BH I/1 (13) • GW 2048 • BMC VI, 666 • Census, A 765 • Rhodes, A 9 • PAP Ι, 361 • Charta Ι, 266

Entity: Renaissance – Humanism

Item Type: Book

Digitized Book:

• › 00004