Themistius. Omnia Opera, Collation: *⁴, A-X⁸, Y⁴, [4], 172, [2]ff., Greek text, colophon in Latin on fol. Y3r, woodcut Aldine device on title and on verso of final leaf, fine woodcut strapwork headpieces and initials, blank spaces for capitals with printed guide letters, Venice, Heirs of Aldus Manutius and Andrea Torresanus, May, 1534; bound with Alexander Aphrodisiensis. Quaestiones naturales, de anima, morales, collation: a-f^8, 48ff. in Roman numbering, title with large Zanetti printer's device ("The larger putto's figure is said to be after Titian", Layton, Greek Book in Italy, p. 517), fol. a3r fine woodcut border and initial printed in red in the style of Byzantine manuscripts, other woodcut initials in the same style printed in black, woodcut borders in different pattern on fols. b4r, c4r e d5r, headings printed in red on fol. a3r, Venice, Bartholomaeus Zanetti, 1536, insignificant water-stain to blank upper margin of first few leaves, a few early marginal notes to first work, late 19^th-century red half morocco over marbled boards, spine with six raised bands, tooled in gilt, comb-marbled endpapers and edges, green silk bookmark, folio, 294 x 187mm.

⁂ A collection of the Late Antique Aristotelian natural philosophy.

The first work is the editio princeps containing eight discourses by Themistius and his important commentaries on seven of Aristotle's works on natural philosophy, including the Analytica posteriora, the Physica and De anima. The last leaves include works by Alexander of Aphrodisia, the most renowned of Aristotle's later commentators. The texts were edited for the Aldine press by the Italian physician and hellenist Vittore Trincavelli (1496-1568), professor of medicine at Padua. The second work is the second issue of the rare first edition of the Quaestiones naturales by Alexander of Aphrodisia, a collection of sixty-nine writings in which he discusses several problems mainly in the field of natural philosophy, and whose authenticity is not beyond dispute. The text is introduced by a dedicatory epistle from the editor Vittore Trincavelli to the French philologian Pierre Danès. The other Aristotelian commentaries announced by the printer Zanetti on the title-page - the Metaphrasis ex Damascio in primun librum de coelo & mundo, the Epitome in quatuor primos, & octavum physices libros, the Liber de sensu by Theophrastus, and the Mataphrasis in libros Theophrasti de sensu by Priscianus Lydus - were actually not included in the edition.

Literature: I. Adams T 447; Renouard Alde, 111.3; Ahmanson-Murphy, 270; Palau 133; II. Adams A 677; STC Italian, 17; E. M. Sicherl, Die griechischen Erstausgaben des V. Trincavelli, Paderborn 1993, pp. 62-67; Ch. H. Lohr, "Renaissance Latin Translations of the Greek Commentaries on Aristotle", in J. Kraye (ed.) Humanism and Early Modern Philosophy, ed. J. Kraye, London 2000, pp. 27-29.