Lot 08010

SCAPULA Johan, “LEXICON GRAECO-LATINUM NOVUM In quo ex Primitiorum & Simplicium fontibus Derivata atque Composita IOANNIS SCAPULAE Opera et studio Cum avetario… Jacobo Zvingero”, Basileae, Seb. Henri Petri, Privil. 1579, colophon 1605.

First edition of Joannes Scapula’s lexicon. Scapula was assigned by Henri Estienne to correct his Thesaurus Grecae Linguae. Based on Estienne’s work, Scapula took the opportunity to publish his lexicon, a shorter and much cheaper version of the Estiennne’s Thesaurus, shortly after the publication of the original work, damaging the “Thesaurus” marketing.

Folio, pp. [11], 1856 columns, [120 – Index + Zvingeri Graecarum Dialectorum: Attica, Ionica, Dorica, Aeolica, Poetica, Synopsis], 188 columns. Title page and colophon with large printer’s devices, engraved initials, head and tailpieces. Contemporary full wood corn binding, blind-stamped pig skin with portraits and floral decoration motifs. Upper part of front joint cut, small holes on both covers, bumped corners and edge-wear, spine soiled, spotting inside, some sheets with marginal signs of water-stain. Contemporary handwritten ex-libris inscription on title page.

See Univ. Basle, Bibliothekskatalog IDS, DD II for this edition those of 1580 by Hervagianus, not in Brunet.