Lot 177
Aristotle
Operum omnium
Auction: 02 October 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
longe principis, nova editio, Graece et Latine … adscriptis ad oram libri et interpretum veterum recentiorumque et aliorum doctorum virorum emendationibus: in quibus plurimae nunc primum in lucem prodeunt, ex bibliotheca Isaaci Casauboni. Lyon: apud Guillelum Laemarium, 1590. 2 volumes in 1, folio (38 x 24.5cm), contemporary German binding of blind-tooled pigskin over beveled boards by Hans Cistler of Wittenberg, metal clasps and catches, covers decorated with various concentric roll-tools enclosing inner allegorical frames depicting the Christian virtues, front and rear covers with central panels respectively depicting the Judgment of Solomon and Samson and the Lion respectively above the binder's signature ‘Hans Cistler Anno 88’, [20] 755, [2] 595 [64] pp., printer's woodcut device to title-pages, Greek and Latin text in parallel columns, repairs to spine and front joint, pigskin discoloured on spine and front board, numerous inked marginalia in Greek and Latin (perhaps 17th century), occasional underlining and other marks (in ink and sanguine crayon), volume 1 title-page with various early inscriptions, two sections of paper restoration where one inscription presumably effaced, Bischoff family ownership inscriptions and ink-stamps to front pastedown and free endpaper, front free endpaper with paper repair to lower fore corner, uniform moderate browning to contents, volume 2 with marginal worming from quire 2M to rear (affecting occasional side-notes) [Adams A1736]
Footnote
First Casaubon edition, ‘the first edition of Aristotle’s works to include the complete works in both Greek and Latin' (Svensson, The Aristotelian Tradition in Early Modern Protestantism, p. 44). The Wittenberg bookbinder Hans Cistler is recorded as a master binder in 1576 and is known to have died in 1601. The date ‘anno 88’ on this binding evidently refers to the year in which the design was made, rather than the date the book was bound: sale records show a copy of a 1595 work of biblical commentary by Wittenberg theologian Aegidius Hunnius in a binding by Cistler containing the same stamps and date.