Iamblichus Chalcidensis
“First edition of this important collection of Ficino's translations (many excerpted) of classical and Byzantine Platonic texts.”
Precious copy, the most beautiful listed on the market, belonging to the rare 1st state, complete with the two blank leaves that are very often missing, coming from the Mariahilf cloister in Passau, preserved in its extraordinary and superb contemporary binding by an Austrian master binder who notably worked for religious institutions.
Folio. 186 ff. including 2 blanks, complete.
Old monastic owner's inscription on title, in an important Upper Austrian contemporary binding of blind-tooled calf over wooden boards with brass fittings and clasps.
323 x 217 mm.
[Ficino]. Iamblichus Chalcidensis, and others. Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Assyrians. Proclus on Platonic Alcibiades on the soul and demon. Proclus on sacrifice & magic. Porphyry on divine matters and demons. Synesius the Platonist on dreams. Psellus on demons. Commentary of Priscian & Marsilius on Theophrastus concerning sense, imagination & intellect. Alcinous the Platonic philosopher’s Treatise on Plato’s Doctrine...
Venice: Aldus Manutius, September 1497.
First edition, first variant printing with uncorrected mistakes on ll. a2r and K2r, in a fine copy with ample margins.
“First edition of this important collection of Ficino’s versions (many excerpted) of classical and Byzantine Platonic texts, including various dedications by Ficino. The book is essentially a gathering of two major groups of translations, the first (Iamblichus-Priscianus Lydus) made by Ficino in the late 1480s, the second (Alcinous-Xenocrates) in the early 1460s, to which is added at the end his early treatise De voluptate (1457). For details on the dates and textual history of each tractate, see Paul O. Kristeller Supplementum Ficinianum, 1937, part III, Index operum; and for identifications of the Greek manuscript sources used by Ficino, see Kristeller Marsilio Ficino and his Work after Five Hundred Years, 1987, Appendix V. The Greek original of Proclus De sacrificio et magia was for long thought lost, until Jean Bidez rediscovered in Florence the Greek manuscript used by Ficino for his translation (see Mélanges Franz Cumont, 1936, 85 sqq.). The texts are:
This first edition of an important collection of classical and Byzantine Platonic works became widely known among humanists thanks to Ficino’s Latin excerpts and versions. With the exception of Alcinous on Plato (first printed in Petrus Balbus’s translation at Nuremberg in 1472) and the Golden Verses of Pythagoras (previously published by Aldus in the Lascaris of 1495 and the Theocritus of 1496), all these texts appeared for the first time in printed form in Aldus’s edition. Ficino began to learn Greek at the age of 23. Cosimo de’ Medici gave him the use of a villa at Careggi before he was 30, and commissioned translations of the Hermetic Corpus and Plato. These translations date from the early 1460s and the late 1480s, and Ficino dedicated the Aldine edition to Lorenzo the Magnificent’s second son, Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici (the future Pope Leo X), as well as to Lorenzo himself and his father, Piero, who all took on the role of Cosimo’s patrons after his death in 1464.
A precious copy, the most beautiful recorded on the market, belonging to the rare 1st state, complete with the two blank leaves which are very often missing, from the Mariahilf cloister at Passau, preserved in its extraordinary and superb contemporary binding made by an Austrian master binder known for working for religious institutions.
GW 14146; Hain/Cop. 9358; BMC V, 557; Pr. 5559; Goff J-216 and supplement; BSB-Ink I 127; IGI 5096 and Corr.; Oates 2177-2179; Polain 2236 and supplement; Voull., Bln. 4495; Hoffmann II, 530f.; Klebs 529.1; Renouard I, 29f., 6; not in the Aldine collection of the Berlin State Library.
