15. Sophocles. Works (1502).

8° ; [392] p.; 165 x 96mm.


The 1502 Aldine is the first printing in Greek of the fifth century B.C. tragedian Sophocles. It was valued as an accurate text through the early twentieth century.

In this publication Aldus describes a new organization: "As we sat in a semi-circle at the fire in the cold of this winter with our fellow New Academicians [it was determined that] when I . . . printed Sophocles' seven tragedies in small format I [should] publish them out of our New Academy." Its members were to speak only classical Greek to each other; anyone who failed to do so would be fined until enough had been collected for a party, at which time the Academicians would "entertain [themselves] grandly and not in the style reserved for the printers, but in a fashion worthy of men who are already dreaming of the [New Academy]."



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