Ex veterum comicorum fabulis … — Paris 1553/54

Ex veterum comicorum fabulis, quae integrae non exstant, sententiae, nunc primum in sermonem Latinum conversae. — Parisiis, M.D.LIII. Apud Guil. Morelium. (Colophon: Parisiis excudebat Guilielmus Morelius M.D.LIIII)
Greek title-page: Τὰ ἐκ τῶν Μενάνδρου σωζόμενα. Ex comoedijs Menandri quae supersunt. — Parisiis, M. D LIII. Apud Guil. Morelium. (Colophon: Parisiis colligebat Guil. Morelius. M.D.LIII)

Paris, G. Morel, 1553/1554

Editio princeps
8vo (146 x 94 mm). Latin text: (2) leaves, pp. 147, Greek text: (74) leaves. Leaves of Greek & Latin alternate. To make it easier to find a passage, Morel has added the letters A, B, C, D in the margin of the Latin text at intervals of 8 lines each.
Type: Grec du Roy, 20 lines = 68 mm (Morel used the material of Turnèbe, who was King’s Printer in Greek from 1552 to 1555). Morel’s device on the Latin title-page: a winged putto carrying a torch in his right hand sitting on the stroke of the letter Theta, the circle of the letter is entwined by two dragons. The epigram from Euripides above the device is Δεύτεραι φροντίδεσ σοφώτεραι, second thoughts tend to be the wiser ones, the Latin below is from Martial: Victurus genium debet habere liber, A book destined to live must have genius.
Modern black morocco, spine and covers gilt. Last quire with a light watermargin in the upper part of the leaves.

On leaf *2 verso (Auctorum nomina ex quibus hae sententie descriptae sunt) Morel lists the printed sources for his edition in alphabetical sequence: Athenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Collectanea impresso cum Callimacho, Eusebius etc. The last in this list is „Hieronymus Spartanus, in libello manu scripto, cui erat inscriptio, Εκ τοῦ Μενάνδρου γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι.“ In fact this Hieronymus is Georgius Hermonymos from Sparta, who arrived in Paris in 1476 and earned his living as copyist at the French court and teacher of Greek at Paris University with Budé, Erasmus, Reuchlin, Lefèvre d’Etaples amongst his students. Morel specifically points out that this source is a manuscript.
Kalatzi lists 4 manuscripts of Hermonymous including amongst other texts Menander’s Sententiae: Vienna: Vind. suppl. gr. 83; Aix-en-Provence: Bibliothèque Méjanes; Bibl. Apostol. Vaticana: Palat. gr. 122; Cracow: Bibl. Jagiellonska, Bero. oct. gr 20. I have no idea if any of these may have been the one Morel had in his hands.
By printig Greek and Latin on different sheets Morel could sell copies in Greek and Latin, in Latin only, and in Greek only. The usual copies are the bilingual ones. Copies in Latin only (finished in 1554) or Greek only (1553) are extremely rare. Besides our copy I found only one of the Greek monolingual edition: Paris, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne. Bibliothèque Victor-Cousin (VCM 6= 8423; Texte grec seul), and none of the Latin edition except our copy.

On Hermonymos see Maria P. Kalatzi, Hermonymos. A Study in Scribal, Literary and Teaching Activities in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries, Athens 2009 (with focus on the manuscripts, JD). – Hoffmann II 590f.; Adams P-1692; BP16 114471.
The editions of the Sententiae by Jaekel (Leipzig, Teubner, 1964) and Pernigotti (Firenze, Olschki, 2008) do not discuss Morel’s edition though the Hermonymos manuscripts play a prominent role in the tradition of the text.