Nazianzenus (Gregoius) [Carmina], collation: A/AA^10.8 BB/B^8.8 C/CC^10.8 DD/D^8.8 E/EE^10.8 FF/F^8.8 G/GG^10.8 HH/H^8.8 I/II^10.8 KK/K^8.8 L/LL^10.8 MM/M^8.8 N/NN^10.8 OO/O^4.4 ?² 2?², 234ff., colophon on O⁴ verso, printer's device on OO⁴ verso, complete with the four additional leaves containing the errata and the index (the latter bound at beginning, as often), Greek and Latin text facing each other (Aldus printed the Greek and Latin texts on separate sheets, which could either be bound in separate sequences or interleaved, as in the present copy), manuscript pagination in brown ink, long manuscript note in Greek on verso of second flyleaf, another note in Latin (on Gregorius Nazianzienus, taken from St. Jerome's De viris illustribus) on verso of second leaf of index, both notes in red and brown ink, the same hand which has numbered the leaves has also provided every chapter of the index with the corresponding leaf number, some additional marginal annotations in Greek and underlining by a contemporary hand, light damp-stain and marginal foxing on a few leaves, otherwise a very good copy with wide margins, contemporary vellum, inked title on spine, 4to, 210 x 158mm., Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1504.

⁂ Editio princeps of Gregory of Nazianzus' poetical works. This publication is the third of the series Poetae Christiani veteres, issued by Aldus in Venice between 1501 and 1504. The series had a pedagogical purpose and was conceived as a complement to the series of classical texts Manutius was printing in the same years. Aldus' heirs also published the first edition of Gregory's orations in 1516 (cf. A. Knowles Frazier, Possible Lives: Authors and Saints in Renaissance Italy, New York, 2005, pp. 114-115).?The complicated structure of the volume, in which the sheets with the Latin text interleave with those containing the Greek, is not very common in Aldus' publications. The main problem with this structure is that the length of the Latin text does not always coincide with the Greek, so that to keep the texts facing each other on opposite pages the composer had to leave blank spaces, which sometimes are filled with different texts. Aldus devised this complicated system with a view to making Greek easier to learn. The book is mainly aimed at young students, whose knowledge of Greek was not good enough and who required the Latin text as a learning support (L. Bigliazzi, Aldo Manuzio tipografo 1494-1515, Florence, 1994, pp. 131-132).

Literature: Renouard, 46.4; The Aldine Press, 2001, no. 84; Edit 16, CNCE21739; Adams, G-1142; Fock, Bibliotheca Aldina, p. 18; Hoffmann, II, pp. 175-177; Bigliazzi, op. cit., no. 86; Di- onisotti-Orlandini, Aldo Manuzio editore, no. LIII; Ahmanson-Murphy, no. 67.