Le prime edizioni greche a Roma (1510–1526) eds. by Concetta Bianca et al (review)

The history of printing in greek during the Italian Renaissance may seem a well-worn topic, but this book is a welcome addition to the literature despite some redundancy in the presentation and occasional weakness in the handling of the Greek. An attractive and helpful feature of the book is that essential information about all the printers is provided in an introduction to the description of the individual editions. But there is a tendency to excessive detail (e.g. pp. 207–11, 211–13). There are no plates; readers interested in type design might have wished for some, especially as a number of the editions are extremely rare and from time to time the contributors refer to significant typographical details. There is some duplication of material and inconsistency: on p. 36 we are told that the number of editions produced in Rome at the press of Guillery and Nani with informative colophons is 18, and on p. 39 n. 1 it is stated to be 15. The ill-founded hypothesis that Vittore Carmelio was Callierges' printer is examined in detail on pp. 19–22, and it did not require further airing at pp. 104 n. 41, 222 n. 23, 384, 391–92. Another unfortunate fact is that when the preparation of the volume was well advanced Fogelmark's monumental study of the Callierges Pindar appeared. This work is reviewed in an appendix (pp. 109–11), where it is stated that in order to take account of it properly resetting would have been needed. It is a great pity that this was not done, all the more so since the editors go to the trouble of reprinting Fogelmark's remarkable discovery, the previously unknown dedication to Musurus, which they translate into Italian (pp. 113–23). That is welcome, since the Greek of Renaissance humanists is far from simple; on the other hand one must express dismay that it was thought desirable to translate all Latin into Italian—is it really the case that lovers of early printed books have no Latin? The footnotes are printed in type small enough to be unwelcome to some readers, as the inking is less generous than in the text above.

The story begins c. 1510 with a slim volume of which the only known copy is in the Gennadios Library in Athens. It was printed by Paolo Enea with the same type that had been used by Damilas for the Lascaris grammar of 1476, and contains short texts designed for reading by beginners in Greek and Hebrew.

From this point onwards I offer miscellaneous observations, based in large part on examination of copies available in Oxford.

Pindar (1515). Pp. 55, 57 In line 8 of Lampridio's epigram the adjective φαιδροτέραιc is rendered 'alquanto splendidi'. But in the context of Rome's superiority to other cities it surely means 'more splendid'. P. 57 It is good to be reminded that the texts of the documents conferring copyright privileges are mostly unpublished, being simply referred to by the publishers. P. 59 n. 18 It is suggested that in 1499 Vlastos and Callierges took care not to print texts already issued by Aldus because of the privilege he had been granted. Another and perhaps more likely motive would have been that the market for Greek texts was not large enough for competing editions to enjoy good sales. Pp. 75–76 The opening paragraphs of §4 seem pretty verbose, and if a detailed review of previous scholarship is to be given it would be helpful if it were accompanied by a judgement of what is correct or most plausible. Pp. 79–81 In the discussion of MSS used for the edition it would have been wise to note that MS Y (Venice, Marc. gr. 475) may not have been readily available...