Scholia in septem Euripidis tragoedias … — Venice 1534

Scholia in septem Euripidis tragoedias ex antiquis exemplaribus ab Arsenio archiepiscopo Mombasiae collecta, & nunc primum in lucem edita. — M. D. XXXIIII. (Colophon:) Venetijs in officina Lucaeantonij Iuntae cum privilegio M. D. XXXIIII. die XXIIII Decembris.

Venice, L. Giunta, 24 December 1534

Editio princeps

8vo (166 x 110 mm). *⁴ A-Z, AA-NN⁸: (4) leaves, 293 p. (i. e. 285), (1) leaf colophon, 2 blank leaves.

Contemporary limp vellum, lower hinge broken. Old library tickets on spine and upper cover,

Edit 16 2186; ustc 810067; Hoffmann II 91; Adams A-2033; Papadopoulos no. 468; Legrand II 219-224.

„This editio princeps is of fundamental significance for subsequent Euripidean acholarship …

Arsenios, who certainly knew what to look for, draw his material from several sources, among them a manuscript from Bessarion’s collection in Venice containing hitherto unused Byzantine scholia, a Plaudean paraphrase of Eurippides.“ (Geanakoplos p. 197).

On the manuscripts used by Arsenios see. J. Cavarzeran, Scholia in Euripides Hippolytum, 2016, pp. 57ff. 

The Scholia in our edition refer to Ἑκάβη, Ὢρέστης, Φοίνισσαι, Μήδεια, Ἰππόλυτος, Ἀλκέστις, Ἀνδρομάχη.

The type (20 lines=90 mm, Kallierges 2) was cut and used by the printer Zacharias Kallierges in his books of 1509. The font was sold to the Giunti and used by them from 1514/1515 through 1542.

On Aresnios‘ biography, his editions, his differences with Aldus Manutius over financial matter, and with the orthodox church over the archbishopric of Monemvasia see Geanokoplos, Byzantium and the Renaissance, 167-200,; Biethenholz Contemporaries of Erasmus, I 68f.

Geanakoplos 167f.: Arsenios Apostolis “is another Cretan deserving of more attention for his part in the transfer of Greek learning to the Western world. Son of Michael Apostolis, he is the most conspicious example in the period of Greek literatus who, after lengthy residence in Italy, returned to live in the East. As in the case of Musurus, his Western activities are closely bound up with the flowering of Greek studies in the three major centers of Italian humanism – Medici Florence, the Aldine milieu of Venice, and the papal court of Leonine Rome … In imitation of the elder Apostolis, Arsenios early began to teach. A pupil of his at this time [around 1490, J.D.] was certainly John Gregoropoulos, later to become a leading  member of the Aldine circle. Among other students of Arsenios was very probably Gregoropoulos’ good friend Marcus Musurus … [In 1492 Aresenios arrved in Florence where] Piero de’ Medici became his patron. Arsenios, appropriately enough, now occupied himself with copying for Pietro the manuscripts Janus Lascaris had brought back from the East … Arsenios next appears in Venice, where we find him, in 1494, at work for the publishing firm of Aldus Manutius … Arsenios’ name appears as an editor of one of Aldus’ very first publications, the curious Greek poem Galeomyomachia … [he] certainely worked on other Aldine projects in this period .. In October 1497 we find Arsenios in Crete … a short time later, at the end of 1498 or beginning of 1499, Arsenios’ relationship with Aldus was broken off as a result of a differene between the two over a financial matter … He did not return to Aldus’ employ. Rather we find him remaining in Crete where he was to reside for the next six or seven years, from the last part of 1497 to the end of 1504 … His activity in Crete during these years entailed, it would seem, mainly the copying of manuscripts and a certain amount of teaching.“