Platone - Platonis Opera - 1517

Plato

Platonis Opera

Venice - 1517 -
Filippo Pinzi

(12), CXX, 167-174 (that is CXXI-CXXVIII), 172-179
(that is CXXIX-CXXXVI), CXXXVII-CCCLXXXIX c.

In folio - 31.5 X 22 cm -


IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL FIRST PRINTING OF THE LATIN TRANSLATION WITH MARSILIUS FICINO'S COMMENTARIES ON PLATO'S WORKS.
ADAMS P 1442
USTC 849833
EDIT16 CNCE 34948

Contains the Opera Omnia of Plato, curated by Marsilius Ficinus, which was the foundation for the diffusion of Platonism in Europe.

The references, with keywords, to Protagoras, Cratylus, Gorgias, Symposium, Phaedo, to the Republic and Laws of Plato are famous.

The soul and love emerge as topics of evident interest for the early readers of the work.

The entire Platonic corpus translated into Latin follows the classical order introduced by Ficino, conceived to reflect a path of spiritual and philosophical ascent for the reader.

The work is structured into three main macro-components:

Introduction -
The introductory elements with Ficino’s dedicatory letter to Lorenzo the Magnificent;
a biography of Plato written by Ficino himself, which extols his moral and philosophical figure;
a compendium with the general introduction to Platonic thought and to integrated Christian theology.

The Dialogues -
Not in chronological order, but grouped by thematic and pedagogical affinity.
First class (introduction):
Timaeus, Philosopher, Teege, Euthyphro.
Second class (ethics and virtue):
Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Alcibiades I,
Alcibiades II.
Third class (love and beauty):
Lovers, Phaedrus, Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias.
Fourth class (rhetoric and sophistry):
Cratylus, Ion, Philebus, Meno.
Fifth class (knowledge):
Laches, Lysis, Convivio (Symposium), Phaedrus.
Sixth class (politics and the State):
The 10 books of the Republic.
Seventh class (cosmology):
Timaeus.
Eighth class (metaphysics):
Parmenides, Sophist
Ninth class (the Laws):
The 12 books of the Laws and the Epinomis.
Tenth class (letters):
The 13 letters attributed to Plato.

Ficino’s Critical Apparatus -
Subject:
each individual dialogue is preceded by a detailed introduction written by Ficino.
These texts explain the allegorical and moral meaning of the dialogue.
Commentaria:
notes and in-depth philosophical comments inserted into the more complex dialogues such as the Timeo and
the Convivio.

Excellent nineteenth-century binding in half leather, with decorated boards on metal plates.
Gold decorations on the multiple gilt lines of the spine, with a gilt title.

Very good also the interior preservation, with strong, fresh, clean papers.
Occasional traces of browning and small damp spots.
Elegant title page with a title printed in red, in addition to likely contemporaneous ex libris of ownership in manuscript:
“Alexandri ab Alexandris vercellensis physici”.
Rare contemporaneous marginal notes, in addition to numbered references in red pencil more recent.
Some pagination errors, but complete text.
Endpapers preserved, not contemporaneous.

Excellent, valuable and rare copy, complete in every part.
BOUND. COMPLETE