Folio. Sign. Aa6, Bb4, a-z, &, 9, A-E6, F4. 194 leaves, the last blank, 11-193 numbered i-clxxxv, but with the omission of li and liv and other irregularities. Gothic letter, 54 lines to the page, with marginal side-headings. The title, occupying seventeen lines of bold heavy-faced type, is printed in red and black and in the form of an inverted triangle. The Index Alphabeticus is introduced by a ten-line initial A with a rose above and a portcullis below the middle bar, found also in the same printer's Sarum missal of 1520. The other divisions of the index have mostly four-line woodcut initials, some of grotesque pattern. Five-line space with guide-letter for the first initial of the text. Ornaments of four patterns, repeated singly or in combination, are used to lengthen out the frequent short end lines of paragraphs in order to give more solidity to the appearance of the page. Three of the same ornaments are found also on the title-page of Whitinton's Vulgaria, printed by W. de Worde in 1521. Ames-Dibdin ii, 441.
In the present copy the index (sign. Aa. 2-6, Bb. 1-4) is separated from the title (Aa. 1) and placed at the end of the volume. Name of Johēs Coningesby written in a sixteenth century hand on the first page of both text and index. The device is the fourth of Pynson's seven devices and was in use 1496-1513. Allusion is made in the colophon to an earlier edition, no copy of which appears to be known. The work was reprinted by Henry Smythe, London, 1546.
Richard Pynson, a Norman by birth, established himself in London about 1490, taking over, as there is good reason to believe, the business of Machlinia, a printer of law books, for which his knowledge of Norman-French especially fitted him. In 1508 he was made Printer to the King and in that year also he printed two books in roman type, the first use of that character in England. He is known to have printed at least 371 books, a much smaller number than de Worde, but as a rule larger and more important books. He is regarded as the best English printer of his time and the Liber Intrationum is one of his finest books.
Bound in red velvet, with silk linings and gilt edges. Leaf 12 3/4 × 9 1/4 in.
From the Syston Park library, with the book-plate and monogram of Sir John Henry Thorold.
27. PLUTARCHUS. Moralia Graece. Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi et Andreæ soceri, 1509.
Title: PLVTARCHI OPVSCVLA. LXXXXII. Index Moralium omnium, & eorum quæ in ipsis tractantur, habetur in hoc quaternione. Numerus autem Arithmeticus remittit lectorem ad semipaginam, ubi tractantur singula. [Aldine anchor]. P. 1050, Colophon: Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi & Andreæ Asulani Soceri. mense Martio. M. D. IX. [Blank leaf with anchor on verso.]
Quarto. Sign. *, a-z, &, aa-zz, aaa-sss8, ttt6. 8 unnumbered preliminary leaves (sign * not included in register on p. 1050) containing title, dedicatory epistle of Aldus to Jacopo Antiquario, index, four couplets of Jerome Aleander, preface of the editor Demetrius Doukas (all except title and dedication in Greek); 1050 numbered pages of Greek text, final blank leaf with anchor on verso. The type is Aldus's fourth Greek font, 46 lines to the page, five- to eight-line spaces left for initials. The semipagina (the equivalent of our page) to which the index directs the reader, shows that pagina still had its older meaning leaf, and incidentally that the numbering of the page instead of the leaf was an innovation. The anchor and dolphin device, the symbol of the motto Festina lente, which first appeared in the Dante of 1502, is here in its first form, but of the larger size suitable for folios and enclosed in double lines, on the title-page without name, but on the last leaf with the addition ALDVS.MA.RO. Although on the evidence of the chain-lines and the water-mark technically a quarto, the volume on account of its unusual size was doubtless printed like a folio on half sheets. Renouard, p. 55. Firmin-Didot, p. 317.
Plutarch's Moralia belongs to that imposing series of first editions of the Greek classics which among all the services of Aldus Manutius to the revival of learning are perhaps his best title to enduring fame. When he set up his press in 1495 five in all, and but one, Homer, of the first rank, had been printed. When he died twenty years later his first editions outnumbered those of all his contemporaries put together, and the rank was even more significant than the number, for among them were included Aristotle, Plato, Thucydides, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar and Demosthenes. The Plutarch was printed from MSS. still preserved in the library of St. Mark.
The Greek type of Aldus was a new departure, based on the cursive or business handwriting of his day in distinction from the older book-hand which had served as the model for the first Greek fonts. It gained immediate popularity and for more than two hundred years, either directly or through fonts based upon it, dominated the Greek printing of Europe. At length, mainly because of the ligatures and contractions, it was supplanted by type of more open and regular forms.