GEORGE of Pisidia Εξαμερον η τοι, κοσμουργια…Eiusdem Senarij De vanitate vitae. Omnia nunc primùm Graecè in lucem edita…per Fed. Morellum. Paris Fed. Morellum 1585
4to. 96ff. Title and text in Greek and Latin, small woodcut arms of Cardinal Sirleto, the dedicatee, on title-page, woodcut headpieces and initials, sidenotes of 2 leaves just shaved by the binder, occasional light discolouration, in modern marbled boards.
EDITIO PRINCEPS (second issue, the first is dated 1584) of two of George of Pisidia’s non-historical works, a didactic poem on the creation of the world and a treatise on the vanity of life, after the manner of Ecclesiastes. Little is known of this seventh century A.D. Byzantine poet and verse chronicler of the wars of the emperor Heraclius. ‘As a versifier Pisida is correct and even elegant; as a chronicler of contemporary events he is exceedingly useful; and later Byzantine writers enthusiastically compared him with, and even preferred him to, Euripedes’, Encyclopaedia Britannica. The work is dedicated, five days before his death, to Cardinal Sirleto (1514-1585), the Italian polymath, bibliophile and Vatican librarian – his rich library was acquired after his death by Cardinal Ascanio Colonna and added to the Vatican library by Benedict XIV. With a prefatory Latin poem on the work by Jean Dorat. From Colbert’s library with a partially shaved inscription at head ‘Bibliotheca Colbertina’, probably in Etienne Baluze’s hand.Adams G464; Hoffmann II, pp.165-66.
£600
This item is listed on Bibliopoly by Hesketh and Ward Ltd.; click here for further details.