STEPHANUS OF BYZANTIUM [with] POLLUX, Iulius

Fine, handsome, and uncommon editions of two most important ancient works of Greek lexicography. Sixteenth-century editions of Stephanus of Byzantium’s ‘Peri pole n’ offered an abridged version of the original sixty-book text—entitled ‘Ethnika’ ( )—fragments of which could be found in the works of other ancient authors like Eustathius, as often highlighted by the anonymous and learned annotator of this copy. The ‘Ethnika’ was a compendium of ethnic names of gentile peoples from places spanning Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Ireland, enriched with material on topography, local history, and mythology drawn from ancient authors. The ‘Onomastikon’, composed by the Greek grammarian Ioulios Polydeukes in the second century AD, is a lexicon of phrases and synonyms in Attic dialect. It is divided by subject, and includes invaluable information on ancient customs, mythology, and everyday life, touching on themes as varied as oracles, poetry, horses, trees, and navigation. The ‘Onomastikon’ is prefaced by a dedication from the Humanist Antonio Francini to Henry VIII’s doctor Thomas Linacre, one of the first scholars of Greek in England and a member of Aldus Manutius’s Venetian Academy.

Printed by the Giunti of Florence, both editions reprise, with a few layout variations and the addition of fine typographical ornaments, the first impressions published in 1502 by Aldus, who intended ‘Peri pole n’ and ‘Onomastikon’ to be bound together. The beautiful typeface, usually found in Giunti Greek texts and based on Francesco Griffo’s work, sought to compete with Manutius’s distinctive font, for which he had been granted a papal privilege contested by the Giunti. These rare editions testify to the way in which Pope Leo X resolved this long-standing dispute between the two printers, by conceding a similar privilege to the Giunti as long as they printed in a slightly different style to Aldus’s.