Creator
Musaeus.
Title
Opusculum de Herone & Leandro, Quod & in Latinam Linguam ad Verbum Tralatum Est.
Coverage
Venice
Publisher
Aldus Manutius,
Date
[before November 1495 (Greek text) and 1497/98 (Latin text)]
Description
As promised in the title, this short Greek poem on the star-crossed lovers Hero and Leander includes a word-for-word Latin translation by Aldus in order to foster the study of the Greek language through a more familiar tongue. Typographical evidence argues that the Greek text was printed earlier than the Latin text, with the two gatherings interleaved in most copies. Bound copies of only the Greek text are known to exist.
This is the first Aldine imprint to include woodcuts. On the left, Hero swims the Hellespont to be with his lover Leander. When (in the woodcut on the right) he collapses on the shore out of exhaustion, Leander, assuming Hero is dead, throws herself from the tower in grief. Bound in olive goatskin by Charles Lewis, and from the library of Beriah Botfield (1807–1863).
This is the first Aldine imprint to include woodcuts. On the left, Hero swims the Hellespont to be with his lover Leander. When (in the woodcut on the right) he collapses on the shore out of exhaustion, Leander, assuming Hero is dead, throws herself from the tower in grief. Bound in olive goatskin by Charles Lewis, and from the library of Beriah Botfield (1807–1863).
Source
From the collection of T. Kimball Brooker.