Lot 678
Plato
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographss | 10 May 2007
Description
[Greek title] Opera quae extant omnia ex nova Ioannis Serrani interpretatione, perpetuis eiusde[m] notis illustrata … Henr. Stephani de quorundam locorum interpetatione iudicium, & multorum contextus graeci emendatio. [Geneva]: excudebat Henr. Stephanus, 1578. First complete edition, 3 volumes bound as 2 (volumes 1 & 3 bound togther, large device on the titlepage, text in two columns of Latin and Greek, decorative woodcut intials and headpieces, later light tan polished morocco, rubbed, titlepage a little dusty and with early ownership inscription, light water staining of the outer margins offirst volume and of upper margins of volume 2, some general paper discolouration (2)
Footnote
Note: Adams P. 1439;Renouard 145:1; Schreiber 201
"Henri Estienne's monumental edition of Plato, the first complete edition, which for two centuries remained the indispensable instrument of Platonic studies; to this day its pagination is universally accepted as the standard system of reference to the text of Plato" (Schreiber). It is the first ediiton of Jean de Serres' translation. The strikingly elaborate device, designed for this work, makes its first and only appearance here. The copy is complete with the dedications to Elizabeth I, James VI and the Canton of Berne - their absence is the works most common defect.