Tragoediae septendecim. Venice, Aldus (1503)
EURIPIDES,

[Bound with:] Electra, nunc primum in lucem edita. Rome, Antonio Blado, 1545.I. Greek letter, complete with all five blank leaves, Aldine anchor device at the end of each volume. II. Greek letter, woodcut arms of the dedicatee Cardinal Ardinghelli and white-on-black printer's device on title .Sm 8vo (165 x 102mm). I. [268]; [190]ff. II. 30ff. Together three vols. uniformly bound in English dark blue morocco c. 1840, triple gilt fillet on covers and central lozenge tooled in gilt with flowers and leafy stems, spine richly gilt in compartments.

A fine set from the library of Sir Robert Peel of the complete Euripides with Aldus' edition bound with the editio princeps of Electra.Editio princeps. The title announces seventeen tragedies but there are actually eighteen, the Hercules Furens being added at the end of the second volume. Alopa's edition of Euripides printed at Florence in 1495 had only contained four plays, the Medea, Hippolytus, Alcestis, and Andromache. Also bound here is the Electra, one of the rarest of Blado's Greek imprints, the one play not included in Aldus' editio princeps. It is edited here by Pietro Vettori, or as he was better known, Victorius (1499-1585), the foremost Italian scholar of his day.Provenance: Sir Robert Peel, second baronet (1788-1850), Prime Minister of Great Britain for two terms of office, 1834-1835 and 1841-1846, with his Drayton Manor armorial bookplate in each volume."In January 1801, when Peel was already beginning to grow tall, he was sent away from home to board at the Revd Mark Drury's house at Harrow School. He had been there two years, and was fifteen, when his mother died. Years later, he said that he had misspent his time at Harrow, and reminiscences tell of long excursions through the countryside with his guns, which he kept at a nearby cottage. But Latin and Greek came easily to him, and his schoolfellows ran to him for help with their translations and verses. In 1804 Byron and Peel declaimed together, Byron taking the part of the judicious Latinus, which allowed him-he was lame-to sit down, and Peel that of the impetuous Turnus... At Christ Church, Oxford, his first tutor was Thomas Gaisford and his second Charles Lloyd, the future bishop of Oxford, with whom Peel continued to correspond about church and state until Lloyd's death in 1829. Peel's closest friend was Henry Vane, son and heir of Lord Darlington, and later duke of Cleveland. Peel expanded at Christ Church. Cricket is mentioned, and rowing, and he dressed for effect. He entered his name for (oral) examination in both literae humaniores and mathematics in November 1808. In the weeks leading up to the examinations he overworked, could not sleep, and talked of withdrawing. The day before the exams he played tennis. Peel did not disappoint his examiners, or his audience. He was the first person ever to be placed in the first class in both schools, and his performance became legendary." (DNB).Renouard pp. 43-4. Dibdin I, pp. 524-6 & pp. 526-7. Adams E1030 & E1052. BMSTC (Italian), p. 239.

Stock Code: CO20499