Suda.

Suda.

Venice: Aldus Manutius and Andrea Torresani,

February 1514.

Suda, or the Suda Lexicon, is a 10th-century encyclopedia of the ancient world, preserving literary and historical information that does not survive elsewhere. As such, it would have formed an essential part of Aldus’s effort to preserve the patrimony of antiquity. Suda (or sometimes Suida) is not an author’s name, but instead derives from the Greek word σοῦδα, meaning “fortress” or “stronghold.” Bound in red goatskin by Charles Hering for George John, Lord Spencer (1758–1834), with the monogram of the John Rylands Library in Manchester stamped on both covers.

From the collection of G. Scott Clemons