Aristoteles - Aristotelous Technes rhetorikes biblia tria - 1549

Aristotle

Aristotelous Technes rhetorikes biblia tria

(bound with)//:

Aristotelis De Arte dicendi libri tres

Paris - 1549 -
Michel de Vascosan

110, (1),(1b); 131, (1b) c.
In 8o - 17 X 11 cm. -

LA RARISSIMA EDIZIONE CHIAVE PARIGINA DELL’ UMANESIMO RIGUARDANTE LA RETORICA DI ARISTOTELE, CON IL TESTO GRECO ORIGINALE CRITICO.

Contains the three books of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in the original Greek text, corrected and revised by Petrus Victorius and translated into Latin by Ermolao Barbaro.
The text is embellished by a rare binding of the period (Lyonese?) in full leather stamped in blind.

ADAMS A 1943
SCHWEIGER I, 56
USTC 141951 (rarissime).

Only two copies catalogued in Italy:
at the Central Library of Rome and at the Braidense Library in Milan (with only the Latin translation).

With the presses of Paris’ most refined printer, Michel de Vascosan, in the service of King Francis I, successor of Josse Bade.
To the frontispiece-place in Rue Saint-Jacques “via Iacobea”,
under the sign of the Fontana.

The splendid Greek types used in the Greek text appear among the best of the Cinquecento.
The editor of the Greek text, Petrus Victorius (1499/1585) is the greatest Greek philologist of the Italian Renaissance, and professor in Florence.
This is his original critical edition, collated on the oldest Medicean manuscripts.
It is the edition that fixed the text of Aristotle’s Rhetoric for 300 years.

With important contemporary Greek marginal notes on A2r, commenting on the definitions of entinema, ethos, pathos, logos, which Aristotle cites on this page.

The Latin translation is by Ermolao Barbaro the Younger (1454/1493), Patriarch of Venice and student of Poliziano.
His translation, made directly from Greek in 1470, is still today considered the most elegant, humanistic, non-scholastic.

Content and structure of Aristotle’s Rhetoric:

Book 1) Defines rhetoric as the “antistropha” of dialectic.
Analyzes the three genres of rhetorical discourse: deliberative (political), judicial (forensic), and demonstrative (panegyric), as well as the three means of persuasion tied to the speaker and audience (ethos, pathos, and logos).

Book 2) Examines the passions (pathos) that the orator must understand and provoke in listeners (anger, compassion, envy, etc.) and the character of men according to age and social condition, as well as commonplace topics and general arguments.

Book 3) Deals with elocutio (style, word choice, rhythmic prose) and dispositio (order and internal structure of the discourse).

Excellent binding from the period in full leather stamped in blind on the boards, with triple filet in a frame and a peak-topped triangle at the top (reminiscent of architectural style), in the reduced “a la fanfare” style.
With 4 gilded floral corner irons (iron with a bouquet used by Lyonese binders) and a large iron with symmetrical foliage “fer de type a la fanfare”.
Spine with 5 cords, with minor professional restorations, to preserve the original binding, with an old paper patch applied, bearing the title.
Excellent conservation.

Very good interior preservation as well, with strong and clean leaves.
Physiological light browning of the sheets.
Interesting contemporary manuscript ownership note on the frontis:
- Achete’ a Lyon….- confirming the French provenance of the copy.
Numerous interesting contemporary marginal notes, both in Greek and Latin.
White leaf O8 intercalated between the Greek text and the Latin translation.
Also present are the original endpapers, as well as the white leaf
R4 at the end of the text.

Fascinating, suggestive, and irreplaceable copy, complete and original in every part.
COLLATED. COMPLETE