[Odes].

Pindar.

[Odes].

Aldus Manutius and Andrea Torresani

January 1513.

This editio princeps of the lyric poet Pindar contains what may be an intentional typographical error by Aldus. In a forthcoming article in the Princeton University Library Chronicle, Douglas Bauer draws new attention to Pindar’s ode Olympian 13, where the word αἰδῶ (“prestige” or “self-respect”) is misprinted ἀλδῶ, the Greek form of Aldus’s own name. That serves to turn the meaning of the passage into something like, “Zeus, grant the sweet good fortune of happiness to Aldus.” This is perhaps a simple typographical mistake, but Bauer suggests that it was a private signature on Aldus’s dedication of the book to his friend Andrea Navagero.

From the collection of T. Kimball Brooker.