Estienne, Henri

Lot 296
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300 - 500 EUR
Estienne, Henri
Comicorum Graecorum Sententiae [Graece & Latin]. No place [Geneva], Henri Estienne, 1569. In-32 (115 x 50 mm) of 16 ff.n.ch., 635 pp. (incorrectly numbered 633), 2 ff.n.ch. including the index and the last blank. Ivory vellum with flaps, handwritten title on spine (contemporary binding). Renouard, Estienne, 132: 3; Schreiber, Estienne, 175. First edition of this collection of aphorisms and proverbs, translated and annotated by Henri Estienne, who also added a dissertation on the method of proverb selection (De habendo sententiarum delectu). In this curious volume, one of the smallest ever produced by this workshop, Estienne left 11 pages empty, in order to give free rein to the reader's notes, as he explains on page 416. "These sorts of compilations were very popular in their day, and Henri Estienne may have issued them as 'bread-and-butter' publications, in order to raise the capital (which he had lost with the patronage of Fugger) necessary to meet the printing and publication costs of his magnum opus now nearing completion: the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae" (Schreiber) Booklet 'Z' misplaced before booklet 'Y', light wetness, small worm gallery 534-548.
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