[STACE]. - Lot 57

[STACE]. Statii Sylvarum libri quinque. Thebaidos libri duodecim. Achilleidos duo. [Preceded by]: Orthographia et flexus dictionum graecarum omnium apud Statium cum accentib. et generib. ex variis utriusque linguae autorib. [Venice: Aldus, August-November 1502]. - 2 parts in one volume in-8, 142 x 94: (40 ff.) ; (256 ff.) [sig. a-e8 ; a-z8 A-F8 G4 A-B8 C4]. Stiff white parchment, smooth spine (18th-century binding). Renouard, p. 35, no. 7. First Aldine edition, dedicated to the Italian humanist Giovanno Pontano (1429-1503), of the works of the Latin poet Stace (0040 ?-0096), including the collection of occasional poems, divided into five books, entitled Les Silves, the 12-song epic poem La Thébaïde and the unfinished poem entitled L'Achilléide. The edition, revised and remarkably printed in italics by Aldus Manutius, includes two "achevé d'imprimer", the first at the end of La Thébaïde, dated November 1502, the second at the end of L'Achilléide, dated August 1502. A first-edition copy, with the second colophon reading: "Cautum est et in hoc, ut in caeteris", which will be corrected in the second edition to read: "Cautum est in hoc. It is complete with the second part of the first edition, bound here at the head, comprising a treatise by Aldus the Elder entitled Orthographia et flexus dictionum graecarum, i.e. the spelling of Greek words in State's works, dedicated to Márkos Mousoúros, or Marc Musurus (1470?-1517). The latter was a Greek scholar, Hellenist and one of the pioneers of humanism, a collaborator of Aldus Manutius. He seems to have taken part in this edition, as Aldus indicates in his epistle, in which he thanks him for the help he gave him in completing this opuscule (cf. Renouard, pp. 394). A good copy in 18th-century binding, complete with the last leaf of the Ortographie, including the Aldine anchor, and blank leaf i8. A few wormholes on the spine, small leather marks on the headpieces. Head margins a little short, restorations in the inner margin of the last five leaves. Ex-libris dated 1974 on verso of last leaf.