Tragaediae Septem cum Commentariis.

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Creator

Sophocles.

Title

Tragaediae Septem cum Commentariis.

Coverage

Venice

Publisher

Aldus Manutius

Date

August 1502.

Description

This copy of the editio princeps of Sophocles was bound for Marco Foscarini (1696–1763), who served as the 117th Doge of Venice from 1762 to his death the following year. Note the incorporation of the Lion of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, into his arms tooled in gilt on both covers. The text completed printing in the summer of 1502, in the Academy of Aldus the Roman, but Aldus’s dedicatory preface to Janus Lascaris, which was printed last with the front matter, speaks of the New Academicians gathered around the braziers during the subsequent winter.

Source

From the collection of H. George Fletcher.