Gregorios Malaxos. Oktoechos [graece], collation: ?-?^8, [160]ff., Greek text, printed in red and black throughout, colophon in Greek on verso of fol. ?8 and woodcut monogrammatic printer's device on recto, small woodcut vignette depicting the Annunciation on the title, three full-page woodcuts on fols. ?2v (St John of Damascus), ?4v (the Crucifixion), and ?8? (the Resurrection), in byzantine style, woodcut headpieces, one large white-on-black strapwork border on fol. ?3r, numerous woodcut initials in red and black, scattered wormholes to blank margins of some leaves, without any loss, first leaf slightly browned, spotted and partially loose, early shelfmarks on the front pastedown, handsome contemporary Venetian 'alla greca' calf binding, blind-tooled, remains of braids at edge of lower cover, two pins protruding from edge of upper board, smooth and rounded spine, title inked to fore-edge, leather abraded in places with losses at extremities, preserved in calf-backed cloth drop-back box, 8vo, 149 x 96mm., Venice, Zuan Battista Tauroceni, 1583.

⁂ A fine copy of this exceedingly rare Venetian edition of the Greek orthodox hymn-book known as Oktoechos (literally, 'eight tone'), remarkable to find in its original Venetian alla greca binding, and in unsophisticated condition. As Layton observes, the Oktoechos was also frequently used by Greek children to learn to read, a circumstance that may explain the rarity of 16^th-century editions of this Orthodox hymn-book. No copy is recorded in Italian institutional libraries.

The edition offered here was printed by the little-known Zuan Battista Tauroceni (Ioannos Baptistos Rikainos), active in Venice from 1580 to 1584, who specialised in the production of liturgical books for the Venetian Greek clientele. Previously he had worked at the printing house of Andrea and Giacomo Spinelli, the most important publishers of 'Greek books for Greeks' in the mid-sixteenth century. The 1583 volume is set in the fine Greek type designed and cut by Andrea Spinelli, and known as Greek 1. "Tauroceni also had in his possession the large Spinelli font, the one they used to publish their Greek liturgical editions. Tauroceni also acquired the Spinelli monogram which he used frequently in his publications although he occasionally used his own monogram as well. After his death in 1584, some of his printing equipment was taken over by his brother-in-law Giovanni Aliprandi who published a series of Greek liturgical books using the Spinelli font. As we see, Greek 1, one of the most elegant sixteenth-century Greek types produced in Italy, had a long and distinguished career" (E. Layton, "The History of a Sixteenth-Century Greek Type Revised", p. 50). According to the model established by the Oktoechos published in 1523 by Nicolini da Sabbio, the 1583 edition has three full-page 'Orthodox' woodcuts in byzantine-archaïque style: Saint John of Damascus (the author of the greater part of the texts included), the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. These woodcuts likewise had a long and distinguished career.

Provenance: H.P. Kraus, The Greek Book, New York 1997, no. 26.

Literature: E. Layton, The Sixteenth Century Greek Book in Italy, pp. 131-134, 481-488; E. Layton, "The History of a Sixteenth-Century Greek Type Revised", Historical Review 1 (2004), pp. 35-50.