Ἐπιστολαὶ Ἐρωτικαί — Antwerp 1566

Ἐπιστολαὶ Ἐρωτικαί. Τινὰ τῶν παλαιῶν Ἡρώων Ἐπιτάφια. E Bibliotheca C. V. Ioan. Sambucci. — Antverpiae, Ex officina Christophori Plantini, M. D. LXVI.

Antwerp, Plantin, 1566

Editio princeps

4to (204 x 149 mm). Α-Μ⁴: 95 pp. Recent boards. – Hoffmann I 239; Adams A-1692; ustc 409778.

The Plantin Press Online cp011569: „Editio princeps of a series of erotic letters in Greek. As the first letter in the manuscript is said to be addressed by Aristaenetos to Philokalos the whole series has been placed under his name. It is possible that, in fact, the letters are from different authors. The manuscript used came from the library of J. Sambucus, and had been sent by the Hungarian humanist, then living at Vienna, to Plantin. The original intention had been to add from another Sambucus-manuscript the Greek text of Philo, De virtutibus. Plantin discovered, however, that this work had already been published by Robert Estienne from a better manuscript. He, consequently, decided not to print it, notwithstanding the fact that the text had already been composed. This obliged him to make some changes in the title-page and the dedicatory letter of his Aristaenetos-publication. Cf. Plantin’s letter to Sambucus, 12 January 1566 (Suppl. Corr., no. 13): ‘Au reste, Monsieur, soyes adverti que iay trouve apres longue recherche que le Philo de Virtutibus que maves de vostre grace envoye pour adiouxter aux Epistres d’Aristenetus est imprimé plus correctement par Robert Estienne que n’est vostre copie parquoy i’en feray rimprimer la premiere feille et Epistre dedicatone desdictes Epistres Aristeneti pour ne vendre chose pour non imprimee qui le soit par un tel imprimeur ains les oeuvres dudict Philo sous le tiltre de Περι Ανδ ριαs ce que il vous supplie ne trouver mal…’.

The cost-accounting note in Arch. 4, folio 84, gives interesting details about the ‘Aristeneti Epist. amatoriae 4⁰’: Frans Raphelengius wrote [= copied] the text; he was ready on 21 April 1565 and received for the assignment five days later 6 florins Carolus guilders 6 stuivers The first six sheets were composed and printed between 1 November and 8 December 1565, for which 10 florins Carolus guilders 3 stuivers were paid. The last six sheets were composed and printed between 15 December 1565 and 12 January 1566. They were paid 10 florins Carolus guilders 4 stuivers, including the resetting of the title-page (‘…dont la première est refaicte à cause du tiltre faux pour estre le Philo de Virtutibus imprimé es oeuvres d’iceluy’). The compositor A. Heindrick received an additional fee of 1 florins Carolus guilders 13 stuivers for setting the text of Philo ‘qui a esté distribué sans imprimer’. The last sheet (M) also underwent some changes which came to an extra fee of 1 florins Carolus guilders 19 stuivers (‘pour M et racoustrement de la forme’). This brought the overall costs for editing and printing to 30 florins Carolus guilders 5 stuivers Of the work 800 copies were printed which meant, ‘avec les imperfections et le refait’, 23 reams of paper. A ‘papier petit bastard’ was used, which costed 1 florins Carolus guilders 8 stuivers per ream, bringing the expenses for paper to 32 florins Carolus guilders 14 stuivers The publication, consequently, costed in all 62 florins Carolus guilders 19 stuivers, i.e. per copy somewhat less than 2 stuivers.“