Scapula - Lexicon Graeco-Latinum - 1665

IN FOLIO MAGNIFICENT – GREAT GERMANIC LEGENDARIUM, IN PIGSKIN DECORATED DRY-DECORATED
Imposing example of the famous Lexicon graeco-latinum by Johannes Scapula in the Basel edition of 1665, one of the great lexicographic tools used for the study of the Greek language in European learned circles of the early modern period. Monumental in size and content, the volume features a title page printed in red and black with a printer’s mark and text laid out in two columns. Of exceptional charm is especially the great antique binding, measuring 350 × 220 mm, made in pigskin over sturdy wooden boards and richly decorated in dry pressing with plates and rollers, with traces of the two original clasps. This is a type strongly characteristic of the great book-tradition of the Germanic Europe between the Renaissance and the early modern era, in which the structural solidity of the volume combines with a complex ornamental program impressed on the skin. The contents are perfectly consistent with the monumental exterior: Scapula’s Lexicon was for generations one of the main references for scholars, theologians and philologists engaged in reading Greek texts. A volume that spectacularly unites the history of classical philology and the art of ancient binding.

WHY TO BUY
MONUMENTAL PIGSKIN BINDING! Wooden boards, plates, rollers and dry-pressed decoration of extraordinary impact.
BASEL 1665! A great Greek-Latin repertoire of the European humanistic tradition.
THE GREEK OF THE HUMANISTS! One of the fundamental lexicographic tools for generations of scholars and theologians.
BOOK + WORK OF ART! A volume measuring 350 × 220 mm destined both for a library of classics and for a collection of historic bindings.

MARKET VALUE
The value of the specimen is determined not only by the bibliographic importance of the Lexicon, which appeared in numerous editions, but above all by the extraordinary physical form. The large pigskin bindings on decorated wooden boards with plates and rollers constitute a marketable niche of its own and can command very different values depending on age, workshop, quality of impressions and condition. For this set, a realistic retail value is in the order of €900–1,400. A precise identification of the plates and rollers, the geographic area of execution and the possible binder could substantially increase its interest and appraisal. If the binding were indeed from the fifteenth century and later reused on the 1665 volume, the collectible value could reach higher levels.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
IN FOLIO – Large volume measuring 350 × 220 mm. Pp. (4), 12 prelim., 896, 278 prelim., 214, (6). Title page printed in red and black with printer’s mark. Text laid out in two columns. Extraordinary antique full pigskin binding on sturdy wooden boards, richly decorated in dry-pressing with ornamental plates and rollers; traces of the two clasps originally present. Leather with natural browning, abrasions, stains and normal signs of use compatible with age; possible small defects at the extremities and structural elements. Endpapers with physiological browning, sporadic foxing and normal signs of time. A specimen of exceptional presence, whose principal collecting feature is the monumental historic binding. As with all old volumes, minor defects or restorations not expressly mentioned may be present.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Johannes Scapula.
Lexicon graeco-latinum.
Basel: sumptibus Henrich Petrinorum, typis Jacobi Bertschi, 1665.
Pp. (4), 12 prelim., 896, 278 prelim., 214, (6).
Large volume measuring 350 × 220 mm.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Johannes Scapula was a lexicographer and humanist active in the 16th century, remembered especially for the Lexicon graeco-latinum, a work destined to become one of the most widely used tools for studying the Greek language in Europe during the early modern era. His work arose in the climate of great Renaissance philology and was closely linked to the lexicographic tradition developed around Henri Estienne’s monumental Thesaurus Graecae Linguae. Scapula developed a more compact, practical repertoire, suitable for daily consultation by students, professors, theologians and scholars of the classics. The success was enormous and the Lexicon was reprinted repeatedly between the 16th and 17th centuries. For generations it constituted one of the instruments through which European culture could directly access Greek literature, the New Testament, the Fathers of the Church, philosophers, physicians and historians of antiquity. The name Scapula thus remained tied to the great era in which knowledge of Greek became an essential component of higher education in Europe.

RARITY
The Lexicon graeco-latinum enjoyed broad editorial fortune, and the absolute rarity of the text is therefore not the main collecting element of the present specimen. Exceptionally more important is its physical form: a monumental pigskin binding on wooden boards decorated in dry-press with plates and rollers. Bindings of this type survive in far fewer numbers than copies of the text and are sought as autonomous documents of Germanic book art. The great size of the volume, the sturdiness of the boards, the decorative imprint and the traces of the original clasps greatly increase its charm. A future identification of the individual plates and rollers could allow attribution to a specific geographic area, workshop or period, adding another level of rarity and historical interest.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
The Lexicon of Scapula belongs to the history of the great rediscovery of the Greek language in modern Europe. After the humanist revolution, the possibility of reading Greek authors directly became essential not only for classical philology but also for theology, biblical exegesis, medicine, philosophy, law and history. The great Greek-Latin lexicons thus constituted true intellectual infrastructures of the Republic of Letters, indispensable tools in universities, colleges and erudite libraries. The present specimen also possesses a second equally important historical dimension: that of the binding. Wooden boards, pigskin, dry-press decoration and clasps belong to a construction tradition that has roots in the medieval and Renaissance book and remained especially alive in Central Europe. The volume thus brings together two great parallel stories: the transmission of Greek culture and the material art of the book.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Henri Estienne, Thesaurus Graecae Linguae.
Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres.
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux.
VD17, repertory of printed editions in the German-speaking area in the 17th century.
Geoffrey Ashall Glaister, Encyclopedia of the Book.
J. A. Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding.
Repertories dedicated to Renaissance Greek lexicography and the history of German pigskin bindings.