Preserved in the original 1564 binding

Homer - Eustathius of Thessalonika. Eustathiou archiepiscopou Thessalonikes Parekbolai eis ten Omerou Iliada kai Odysseian meta euporotatou kai pany ophelimou pinakos. Eustathii Archiepiscopi Thessalonicae, in Homeri Iliadis et Odysseae libros parekbolai [...].

€ 12,500.00

Including the complete text of the Iliad and Odyssey in Greek, this is the second edition of this classic Homeric commentary by the Byzantine scholar and rhetorician Eustathius of Thessalonica, hailed as "the most learned man of his age" by the Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. It was first published in Rome 1542-1550; the present edition is a reissue but replacing Devarius' index with a shorter index prepared by Guldenbeck. A "work of immense labour" (Rose), the Commentaries collect material from a wide range of sources to explain or expand on words, phrases and ideas in the Homeric epics, drawing on the works of previous commentators and scholiasts, including Aristarchos of Samothrace, Zenodotos, and Aristophanes of Byzantium. An important source for fragments of otherwise lost works of classic literature, for the history of exegesis and lexicography, and for Byzantine cultural history.

Preserved in the original 1564 binding, presumably the work of the Wittenberg bookbinder Paul Thiele. The upper cover shows an allegorical plate-stamp of Iustitia, inscribed "Iusticie quisquis picturam lumine cernis dic deus est iustus iusta que facta probat". The plate is surrounded by roll-stamped scenes from the life of Christ: the Crucifixion (bearing the binder's initials P.T.), Annunciation, Baptism and Resurrection. The lower cover features a plate-stamp of Judith with the head of Holofernes, inscribed "Voluntatem timencium se faciet dominus psalmo". It is surrounded by the same scenes of Christ as seen on the upper cover, including the "P.T." initials. The Judith plate remains unrecorded among the plates Haebler ascribes to Paul Thiele.