First appearance of the Grecs du Roi typeface designed by Claude Garamond
Ekklēsiastikēs historias ... Ecclesiasticae historiae : Eusebii Pamphili lib. X, eiusdem de vita Constantini lib. V, Socratis lib. VII, Theodoriti episcopi Cyrensis lib. V, collectaneorum ex historia eccles. Theodori Lectoris lib. II, Hermii Sozomeni lib. IX, Euagrii lib. VI
Lutetiae Parisiorum: ex officina Roberti Stephani ... cum privilegio Regis, 1544. First edition of Eusebius's complete works, a collection of Greek writings on the early Church, written by Eusebius between 300-325 AD with continuations into the 5th century by Sozmen, Socrates (of Constantinople) and Theodoret, and the debut in print of the Grecs du roi typeface designed by Claude Garamond. Folio, 2 parts in 1, ff. [4], 353 [i.e. 362], 181, [5] leaves (including the final blank); collating: **⁴ A-X⁸ Y-3E⁶ 3F⁸ 3G⁶, ²2A-3H⁶, P5; printer's wooodcut basilisk device on title page and olive tree on verso of penultimate leaf, 47 large (9-line) woodcut initials, 7 woodcut headpieces; 18th-century full calf, double gilt rule on covers, gilt-paneled spine in 6 compartments, black leather labels lettered in gilt in 2; upper joint cracked, spine lightly chipped at the extremities, several minor worm holes in the blank fore-margins of the first third of the text; a very good, clean copy, Bookplate of William Markham, Esq. (1760-1815, private secretary to Warren Hastings), Becca Lodge, Yorkshire. The most famous of all Greek types, known as the Grecs du roi or the Royal Greek Types, owe their origin to the scheme of Francis I to encourage Hellenic learning by making available in print Greek manuscripts in the French Royal Library. Conrad Neobar, who was the first to hold the official title "King's Printer in Greek," died in 1540 and was succeeded by Robert Estienne. In 1541, a Treasury grant was made to Estienne to obtain punches for a Greek font, which resulted in the Royal Greek Types. They were executed by Claude Garamond and were based on the calligraphy of the Cretan Angelo Vergecio, a copyist and cataloguer of the Royal manuscripts. The first book to be printed entirely in the new types was the Eusebius of 1544. Originally, it was intended to be cut only one size, the great primer, but a smaller and larger were soon prepared. Paradoxically, the enormous success of the new types had unfortunate consequences. They virtually arrested any development in Greek typography for the next two hundred years. To imitate the involved cursive hand of Vergecio, an enormous number of ligatures and contractions were required, and by no means all subsequent users of the types or their derivatives achieved the brilliant effect of Estienne's productions. The Eusebius is outstanding not only for its typographical importance and magnificence but, according to Updike, also for containing the most brilliant impression of the beautiful initials and headpieces which are based on the illuminated decorations with which Vergecio embellished his texts. Adams E1903; Mortimer, French, 219; Schreiber, 77; Printing and the Mind of Man (exhibition catalogue) no. 3. Updike I, pp. 237-8. Item #72613
Price: $5,000.00
