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DIO CHRYSOSTOM. Logoi 80. Dionis Chrysostomi Orationes LXXX. Apposita est in extremo libro varietas lectionum, cum orationum indice. Venice, Apud Federicum Turrisanum [1551?]. EDITIO PRINCEPS. 8vo, ff. 451 (5), A-3L8. Greek type, a little Roman. Aldine device on t-p, several fine decorated strapwork initials. Ms. note reporting Editio Prima on verso of second front flyleaf and other details concerning this edition. Extensive marginalia in Greek and Latin throughout. Rare occasional waterstaining and some spotting, yet pages appear rather clean and unspotted. Margins slightly trimmed. Detached bookplate showing the crest of the Clan Scott. In contemporary limp vellum, visible ties, damaged headcap with vellum fragment torn away, remains of laces. First edition of this important collection of orations. The ancestor of the Roman historian Cassius Dio (155-235 BC), Dio Chrysostomus was a Greek historian and man of letters born in Prusa (now Bursa), Bithynia (now a part of Turkey), in 40 BCE within in a powerful and rich family. He died in ca. 115. His nickname was Chysostomus, literally golden-mouthed , by virtue of his eloquence. He became a Roman citizen earning the surname of Cocceianus after his connection with Marcus Cocceius Nerva, the famous Emperor, whose family offered him patronage. The orator Philistratus (170-247 BC) is our main source on Dio s life and career. In his Lives of the Sophists, he referred to Dio as a sophist, a master of language, skilled in the art of rhetoric and philosophy. His most renowned oration is In Praise of Hair. The present work was edited by Federico Torresano, one of Andrea s sons, being his brother Giovan Francesco, who both took over the successful Manuzio-Torresano partnership in 1533 and continued the printing and editorial activity of classics, holding to the exclusively humanistic address of the firm, under the denomination of haeredes Aldii Manutii Romani et Andrea Asulani soceri . Federico Torresano dedicated this work to Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, as his dedicatory letter at the beginning of this collection of speeches makes clear. Rodolfo was son to Alberto III Pio, Prince of Carpi, whose maternal uncle was the great humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. In the introductory letter, Federico Torresano points out the common effort made by Alberto and Aldo Manuzio the Elder to foster the publication of the Greek classics. Aldo Manuzio was mentor to Alberto, who helped him fund the most important and productive printing house of the Italian and European Renaissance, established in Venice in 1494. Adams D500; Brunet, II, p.714: Edition rare, la première de cette auteur. Seller Inventory # ABE-1521547648577
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