Βιβλίον τοῦ Αὐγούστου μηνός … — Venice 1673

Βιβλίον τοῦ Αὐγούστου μηνός … — Τυπωθὲν μὲν παρὰ Νικολάου Γλυκεῖ τῷ ἐξ Ἰοαννίνων. Διορθωθὲν δὲ παρὰ Ἀλλουσίου Πρωτοθύτου καὶ Βιβλιοφύλακος τοῦ Γραδενίγου … — Ἐνητίησιν … ᾳχoγ.

(Venice, Glykys, 1673)

Folio ( 295 x 201 mm). A-O⁶ P⁸ (P₈ blank): ρπβ / 192 pp., (1) blank leaf. B₂ bound after B₃. Paper repair to upper paste-down. A tissue paper pasted before the title-page. Little hole in A2. Some spots and watermargins.

Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards. Two little stamps in gilt: the crucification on upper, Saint Mary on lower board. It’s one of the rare bindings in calf produced at the Glykys shop (see below).

Provenance: Stamp of Biblioteka Kolegiului S. Sava on A2and P10. – 

Papadopoulos, Ελλενικη Βιβλιογραφια, 4077; Legrand 17 V 100f. (Rarissime.); Veloudis, Glikis, p. 94, no. 12. The online catalogue of the Benaki Museum knows eight copies: five at Mount Athos, one in the Casanatense, one in Sofia, one in Budapest.

Title-page woodcut, woodcut ornaments etc.: „The main feature of these woodcuts is their interchangeability. They seem to have formed a common fund of carved wood plates available to all Greek printers, from which the printers were supplied by borrowing, renting or reselling.“ (Veloudis, Glikis, p. 59) The title-woodcut of our edition shows Glykys‘ mark, the bee,  and his initials in a little oval in the lower part of the woodcut. Other printers did use this woodcut putting their mark and initials in the oval. 

Binding: „Venetian bookbinders were united in the guild of book printers and worked either in their own workshops or in a printing house. The Glikis printing house must also have employed a bookbinder at an early stage, although this is only attested later, for the year 1819. In any case, the main work of a bookbinder consisted of stitching the printed sheets. In addition, there was usually a poor binding of coarse, whitish-gray, raw cardboard [cartonato rustico, JD]… A firmer binding of thick cardboard or even leather must have been a rarity and was made to order, for example, for a higher cleric or for a wealthy customer or patron, as is sometimes attested for Glikis books, since in addition to the art of printing, the art of binding was unknown in the territories occupied by the Turks.“ (Valoudis p. 57).

The last photo shows two bindings from Glykys‘ shop: The present one and a Pentekostarion of 1681.