Ἑλληνισμός. In quo quicquid vetustissimi scriptores de Graecae linguae ratione praecipiunt … — Paris 1555

Ἑλληνισμός. In quo quicquid vetustissimi scriptores de Graecae linguae ratione praecipiunt: atque adeo omnia quae ad Dialectos intelligendas, & Poetas penitus cognoscendos pertinent, facili methodo exponuntur. Eo accedit plurimorum verborum originis explicatio. — Parisiis M.D.LV. Apud Guil. Morelim, in Graecis typographum Regium. [Paris, Guillaume Morel, 1555].

First edition

4to (227 x 141 mm). A-Z⁴ a-p⁴: (4) leaves, 302 pp., (1) leaf. Contemporary vellum. Later fly-leaves. Manuscript title on spine. Gilt coat of arms on upper cover, initials IA R and dated 1573. The arms rubbed in its centre. 

Provenance: Faded oval stamp Gymnasium Zittau on title-page, in its margin a slightly shaved ownership entry I. A. / Consecror studiis […] / a. d. D. v. Vratis[lava] / die XX april[is] / [1680], [below in black ink:] nunc G.  Pohlii.

The book block and the binding have been shortend at the right edge, and the gilt coat of arms are not in the centre anymore, but a bit to the right. It looks like the original binding but it may also be a recased one. The outer blank margin is still 20 to 23 mm. – Adams C 508; ustc 151684.

Wikipedia: „Angelo Canini (Angelus Caninius, 1521-1557) was an Italian grammarian, linguist and scholar from Anghiari. His first publication was Book II of the commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias on the De anima of Aristotle (Venice 1546). In the same year he translated the commentary on the De mixtione and the commentary of Simplicius on the Enchiridion of Epictetus (a revision of Poitian’s). He published an edition of Aristophanes at Venice in 1548 (Aristphanes Comoediae Undecim, Giovanni Griffo). After a time in Spain, he found a patron in Guillaume du Prat, who helped him to move to Paris. He wrote an Aramaic grammar, published in 1554, and taught Hebrew in Paris in the 1550s. At Paris he taught Greek … he was at the Collège des Lombards and the the Collège de Cambrai … “

Ἑλληνισμός was reprinted in Paris 1578, in Lodon 1613, 1624, 1657, and in Amsterdam and Leyden in 1700.

„This work is a seminal work in the history of Greek teaching in France in the sixteenth century, beeing responsible for the introduction of the Erasmian pronunciation of Greek.“ (Sotheby’s cat. of the Macclesfield auction 2008)