Statii Sylvarum Libri quinque Thebaidos libri duodecim Achilleidos.

[Venetiis]: [In aedibus Aldi], 1502. FIRST ALDINE EDITION. 2 parts in 1. 12mo, 153 x 97 mms., pp [592], collating: a-z8 A-F8 G4 A-B8 C4; a-e8, lacking blank leaf i8 but with final leaf of woodcut printer's device, with C4 (second colophon at end of Achilleidos) misbound at end before printer's device and c3-6 of Orthographia misbound after C2 of Achilleidos, initial spaces with guide-letters (some supplied in ink in contemporary hand), including imprint and Aldine anchor on verso of last leaf, with colophons dated August and November, 1502, bound in early 19th century red morocco, gilt border on covers, raised bands on spine (slightly faded), corners slightly crushed but a very good copy, with the bookplate of James Lewis Knight Bruce of Roehampton on the front paste-down end- paper and the autograph and date in pencil "Richard de la Mare/ 17 Sept 1924" on the bookplate. Printed in Greek and Latin in a single column, this edition of Statius is an excellent example of the splendid italic font designed by Pietro Bembo. Chaucer was one of the earliest English authors to admire Statius, and towards the end of Troilus and Criseyde, one finds a short summary of Statius' Theobaid. In the eighteenth century, the author Richard Glover (1712–1785),well-known to literary historians and booksellers as the author of Leonidas (1770), and his translation of Statius, The Athenaid, was published by his daughter, by then Mrs Halsey, in 1787. An online English translation by A. S. Kline can be found on the internet. The Wikiepedia entry on Statius is a model of concise scholarship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statius Adams S1670; Ahmanson-Murphy 61; EDIT 16 CNCE 36141; Renouard 35:7]. This note appears in OCLC: "This volume should contain 40 leaves, sometimes placed at the beginning, sometimes at the end, with the following title page in capitals: "Orthographia et flexvs dictionvm graecarvm omnivm apvd Stativm cvm accentib. et generib. ex variis vtrivsqve lingvae avtorib."/ Colophons: G4: 'Venetiis, in academia Aldi Ro. Mense Nouembri M D II'; ²C4: 'Venetiis in aedibus Aldi. Mense Augusto. M, DII.'/ Dedicatory letters by Aldus Manutius to Ioannes Pontanus at beginning of the Sylvae; to Marcus Musurus at beginning of the Orthographia./ Printer's device on recto of last leaf of Orthographia./ Signatures: a-z8 A-F8 G4 ²A-²B8 ²C4 (i8 blank); Orthographia a-e8./ Thebais begins on leaf k1; Achilleis on leaf ²A1./ Capital spaces with guide letters./ Text in Latin with sections in Greek, predominantly in 'Orthographia et flexvs dictionvm graecarvm omnivm apvd Stativm cvm accentib. et generib. ex variis vtrivsqve lingvae avtorib'." Boyd Ashby Wise, The Influence of Statius upon Chaucer (1911; rpt. New York: Phaeton, 1967 ), pp. 45–8.