Adimari - Ode di Pindaro - 1631

THE ANCIENT GREEK OLYMPIADS - PINDAR WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PANHELLENIC GAMES
Extraordinary engraving apparatus dedicated to the Olympic Games and to the panhellenic competitions.
Magnificent first edition of the work that established Alessandro Adimari among the greatest Italian interpreters of Greek poetry. Published in Pisa in 1631 and dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Urban VIII and one of the most important patrons of the seventeenth century, this monumental translation represents the first major attempt to render in Italian the poetic complexity of the Odes of Pindar, the supreme singer of the Olympic victories of antiquity. Adimari does not merely translate the Greek text: he accompanies it with a vast scholarly apparatus and with an extraordinary cycle of engravings dedicated to the Olympic, Pitic, Nemean, and Isthmian Games. The plates depict wrestling, boxing with baskets, chariot races, equestrian events and athletic competitions, transforming the volume into one of the most important iconographic testimonies of the rediscovery of classical sport in Baroque Europe.
WHY TO BUY
Extraordinary engraving apparatus dedicated to the Olympic Games and to panhellenic competitions.
First edition of Alessandro Adimari’s masterpiece.
First great Italian poetic translation of the Odes of Pindar.
A sought-after volume for collectors of classical studies, sports history, and seventeenth-century illustrated books.

MARKET VALUE
Early seventeenth-century editions of great classics translated and commented on by Italian humanists maintain a stable, international market. The cultural prestige of the work, the dedication to the Barberini family, the importance of Adimari’s translation, and above all the rich iconographic apparatus devoted to the athletic disciplines of ancient Greece make this edition particularly sought after. Complete copies with all engravings and bound in period leather are relatively uncommon on the antiquarian market. The commercial value can be estimated between €900 and €1,600, with higher results for copies that are especially fresh and complete.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full parchment binding with a handwritten title and a spine label. Wear and some parchment losses, ancient restorations to the capitals. Allegorical copper-engraved frontispiece by Alessandro Vanni. Title page in red and black. Numerous copper-engraved plates (out of text) dedicated to the athletic disciplines of ancient Greece, including scenes of wrestling, basket-armed boxing, pentathlon, chariot races, equestrian events, and panhellenic ceremonies. Pages with browning and natural foxing; some marginal ancient restoration that does not affect the engraving. Pp. (2), 20 ll., 748, 64 ll., (2). In ancient books with a long history there may be some imperfections not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Alessandro Adimari.
Ode of Pindar.
Pisa, In the printing house of Francesco Tanagli, 1631.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Pindar (c. 518–438 B.C.) was the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece and the official minstrel of the winners of the Olympic, Pitic, Nemean, and Isthmian Games. His Odes (Odepinic) celebrated victorious athletes by transforming athletic achievement into a moral, religious, and political ideal. For Renaissance and Baroque humanists, Pindar represented one of the absolute peaks of classical literature, and his translation posed almost an impossible challenge. After sixteen years of work, Adimari produced an Italian version capable of preserving the elevated style of the original, while offering a vast accompanying commentary for scholars. The work marked a fundamental step in the diffusion of Greek culture in Seicento Italy.

THE FIRST GREAT ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES
One of the most fascinating aspects of the work is the rich cycle of engravings devoted to ancient Greek athletic competitions. The plates portray with notable accuracy wrestling, basket-armed boxing, pentathlon, chariot races, equestrian events, and panhellenic ceremonies. More than mere illustrations, they constitute one of the most important visual reconstructions of classical sport produced in seventeenth-century Europe and provide a highly significant iconographic source for the history of the ancient Olympics and their reception in the modern era.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Alessandro Adimari (1579–1649), a Florentine nobleman, belonged to the Accademia della Crusca and the Accademia dei Lincei. A man of letters, philologist, and translator, he devoted much of his life to studying Greek literature. The translation of the Odes of Pindar, the fruit of sixteen years of work, represents his masterpiece and one of the highest achievements of Italian philology in the seventeenth century.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The 1631 edition marks the first appearance of the work. Printed by Francesco Tanagli in Pisa under the patronage of the Barberini family, it was conceived as an editorial monument intended for the leading Italian scholarly circles. The engravings were made specifically to illustrate the athletic competitions celebrated by Pindar and constitute one of the richest iconographic apparatuses devoted to ancient sport published in the seventeenth century. The edition was limited, and complete copies are today relatively uncommon on the antiquarian market.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / OPAC SBN, Pisa edition, Francesco Tanagli, 1631.
USTC, Universal Short Title Catalogue, Adimari 1631 edition.
Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares et Précieux, entry “Pindaro.”
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire et de l’Amateur de Livres, vol. IV, entry “Pindare.”
Catalogue of the National Central Library of Florence, copies of Adimari’s translation.
Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, entry “Adimari, Alessandro.”
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, entry “Alessandro Adimari.”
Studies on the fortune of Pindar in Italian Seicento.
Literature and Classical Philology in the Barberini era.