APOLLONIUS DE RHODES. Lot n° 3

Argonauticon opus. Basel, s.n., 1523 [at colophon]: Andreas Cratander, June 1523. In-4, rooted calf, cold fillet, smooth spine grotesquely decorated, green title piece, marbled edges (Binding ca. 1820). Rare Basel edition of this mythological epic of more than 6,000 verses known as the Orphic Argonautics, the work of the legendary poet Orpheus. It describes the journey of the Argonauts led by Jason to the conquest of the Golden Fleece. The editio princeps edition was published in Florence in 1500 by the Junta. Beautiful printing in Greek characters for the original text, with the Latin translation, by the Italian humanist Leonardo Crivelli (Crivellius), printed in round letters opposite. Title set in a beautiful woodcut frame. Cratander's large typographic mark occupies the back of the last page. Filled cut-out in the first cover page, probably as a result of the cutting of an ex-libris. Some characters have been redacted in pencil on the title frame. The following has been linked to the suite: OLIVIER (Jean). Pandora. Lyon, Étienne Dolet, 1541. Original edition of this piece considered as the best Latin work by Jean Olivier, poet and Hellenist, who died in 1540, was abbot of Saint-Denis, then bishop of Angers in 1532. According to Brunet (IV, col. 181), in this play the author assumes that women are Pandora's box from which all the evils of this world came out. Very rare impression by Étienne Dolet, whose typographical mark appears on the title and the back of the last leaf (cf. Copley-Christie, no. 27). Small restored crack on the edge of the title, lack of old repaired paper in the white of the last page. Pleasant volume, nicely bound, bringing together two rare 16th-century editions. Large light-coloured wetness on the edge of several notebooks of the volume.