Beschreibung
Aristophanis facetissimi Comoediae undecim. Plutus, Nebulae, Ranae, Equites, Acharnes, Vespae, Aves, Pax, Concionantes, Cereris sacra celebrantes, Lysistrate. Venice, in aedibus Bartholomai Zanetti Casterzagensis, sumptibus vero D. Melchionis Sessa, 1538. £1500 8vo, ff. 280, A-2M8, final leaf blank. Greek type, a little Roman. Decorated initials, t-p with small printer s device (a cat with a mouse in its mouth), repeated on verso of second-to-last leaf in larger and more elaborate fashion within a figurative frame with the motto: Dissimilium infida societas . Occasional dampstains, small wormholes, and age yellowing throughout. Ink title to foot fore-edge of text block, in contemporary thin vellum over boards in double layer (inner layer derived from a ms. parchment leaf), spine slightly wormed, in four compartments with raised bands, two of which damaged, showing ties. Remains of ties, lightly rubbed on covers and edges. Blurred handwriting, perhaps of ownership, on upper part of front cover. A clean copy in excellent condition. Aristophanes was the greatest of the Athenian comic dramatists and one of her greatest poets. For richness and fertility of imagination probably only Shakespeare is comparable and Aristophanes direct influence on English literature was considerable; the comedies of Jonson, Middleton and Fielding derive from him. Apart from constituting one of the surviving glories of Hellenic culture Aristophanes comedies are an invaluable source for its social history. His surviving plays, out of a probable forty or fifty, provide us with an accurate if satirical commentary on the political, religious, sexual, economical and domestic life of Athens over a period of thirty six years. His changes in style and content match the concurrent constitutional and social changes in the State itself. The plays themes are invariably contemporary, a mocking mirror to the condition of the city. This edition has the benefit of the scholia of Thomas Magister, John Tzetzes and Demetrius Triclinus themselves incorporating much of the more ancient commentaries of Appolonius, Callimaches, Didymus and others, which were superseded in later editions by much newer but also much inferior work. Adams, A1709. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-1519922145793
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