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A: Firenze, Toscana, Italy

The Editio Princeps of Homer: The First Printing of a Major Greek Work in its Original Language

1488 to 1489

In 1488 and 1489 the first printed edition (editio princeps) of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer appeared in Florence in two volumes. This edition of Homer's Opera in Greek was edited by the Greek scholar Demetrius Chalcondyles and printed by Bartolommeo di Libri at the expense of the brothers Nerli. It was the first printed edition of any major Greek work in its original language.

"The type used was that of Demetrius Damilas, whose 'labor and skill' . . . is acknowledged in the colophon" (Barker, Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script & Type in the Fifteenth Century [1992] 37).

ISTC no. ih00300000.  In November 2013 a digital facsimile was available from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link

Timeline Themes