Demosthenes. Orationes duas & sexaginta [graece], collation: a-b⁶, ?-?⁶, A-T⁶, ?⁸ (signatures in Greek letters), aa-qq⁶, rr⁸, ss-xx⁶, yy⁴ (fol. rr⁸ verso blank), [24], 532, 207 (last page misnumbered 507), [57] pp., Greek and Roman type, title and verso of fol. yy⁴ with woodcut printer's device of Johann Herwagen (Heitz-Bernoulli 127), numerous woodcut criblé initials, numerous marginalia in Greek and Latin, some of the Greek notes by Varchi himself, title with the name of Erasmus partly deleted by censors, very tiny wormholes on blank margins of first leaves, further wormhole on fols. Ii³-yy⁴, affecting some letters of text, mild foxing, small stain to outer blank margin of first three leaves, short tear to fol. a^2,19th century diced russia-backed boards, slightly rubbed, folio, 325 x 215mm., Basel, Johannes Herwagen, September 1532.

⁂ Exceptional copy which belonged to the Florentine humanist Benedetto Varchi (1503-1565). This is the second edition overall - it was first published by Aldus in 1504. In this new Basel edition the commentary of Ulpianos, published separately by Manuzio in 1503, is here printed in a smaller font surrounding the text. The volume is prefaced by an epistle from Erasmus of Rotterdam (1496-1536), and includes a selection of variants edited by Pierre Danès (1497-1579), who lectured Greek in the Parisian Collège Royal, and an extensive commentary, introduced by the printer Johann Oporinus, and taken from the writings of Erasmus and from the Commentarii linguae Graecae by Guillaume Budé (1468-1540), published in 1529 in Paris and reissued in 1530 in Basel. The National Library at Florence holds the inventories of Varchi's large and important book collection, and among the entries we found "Demosthenis opera G. in f. Basileae 1532." (ms. II.VIII.142, fol. 22r). According to these lists Varchi owned numerous other editions of Demosthenes, both in Greek and in Latin. His deep interest in Demosthenes and his works is further evinced by an autograph manuscript preserved in the Biblioteca Riccardiana (ms. Ricc. 1184), which contains the Latin translation of some speeches, such as the first three Olynthiacae and the De pace, and it is no coincidence therefore that in this copy of Demosthenes it is these very texts which are profusely annotated in the margins by Varchi.

Provenance: Benedetto Varchi (1503-1565, ownership inscription on title in brown ink); Gustavo Camillo Galletti (1805-1865, oval stamp on title); Horace de Landau (book-plate on front pastedown; sale Hoepli, Florence, 16 January 1949, lot 88); Bibliographical description by H.P. Kraus, New York, loosely inserted.

Literature: Adams D261; VD16 D, 484; STC German, 238; Hoffmann i, p. 508; Griechischer Geist, 225; L. Delaruelle, G. Budé, Paris 1907, p. 224; U. Schindel, Demosthenes im 18. Jahrhundert, München 1963, pp. 10, 207; La France des Humanistes i, p. 94; Demosthenes. Statesman and Orator, ed. I. Worthington, New York 2000, pp. 250-251; D. Tangri, Demosthenes in the Renaissance, "Viator", 37 (2006), pp. 545-548; M. Prunai Falciani, Manoscritti e libri appartenuti al Varchi nella Biblioteca Riccardiana di Firenze, "Accademie e Biblioteche d'Italia", 53 (1985), pp. 14-29 (in part. p. 22, n. 16); F. Scapecchi, Ricerche sulla biblioteca di Varchi, in Benedetto Varchi, ed. V. Bramanti, Rome 2007, pp. 307-318; B. Varchi, Lettere 1535-1565, ed. V. Bramanti, Rome 2008, p. 70; Autografi di letterati italiani. Il Cinquecento, Roma 2009, pp. 337- 351.