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Lot 57

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Estimate
$600 - 800
Price Realized
$768
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium

Lot Description

[LEAF BOOK - ALDINE PRESS]. BARKER, Nicolas. Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script & Type in the Fifteenth Century...with original leaves from the Aldine editions of Aristotle, 1797; Crastonus' Dictionarium Graecum, 1497; Euripides, 1503; and the Septuagint, 1518. Sandy Hook, CT: Chiswick Book Shop, 1985.


Small folio. With 4 original leaves printed by Aldine, tipped in. Original gilt-lettered red cloth; publisher's slipcase.

LIMITED EDITION, one of 200 copies, WITH 4 ORIGINAL LEAVES FROM FIRST ALDINE EDITIONS of Aristotle, 1497; Crastonus' Dictionarium Graecum, 1497; Euripides, 1503; and the Septuagint, 1518.

"[This work] is one of the most intellectually significant of modern leaf books. It included four leaves, each printed in one of four Aldine Greek types" (Joel Silver, "Exhibition of the Catalog," in Disbound and Dispersed 36). In his preface, Barker admits that leaf books are not a genre he was interested in but "the idea of bringing together all four of the Aldine Greeks, however, has a special appeal. It cannot be done in nature, so to speak: there is no book in which all four appear together. Besides, they represent such a fascinating progression in terms of letter-design that the chance of exploring them in detail was not to be refused." Chalmers, Disbound and Dispersed Checklist 184.


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