Intextual andclassical scholarship, theeditio princeps (Latin forfirst edition;plural:editiones principes) of a work is the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only inmanuscripts (which had to be copied by hand in order to circulate).
For example, theeditio princeps ofHomer is that ofDemetrius Chalcondyles, now thought to be from 1488. The most important texts of classical Greek and Roman authors were for the most part produced ineditiones principes in the years from 1465 to 1525, following the invention of theprinting press around 1440.[1][2]
In some cases there were possibilities of partial publication, of publication first in translation (for example from Greek to Latin), and of a usage that simply equates withfirst edition. For a work with several strands of manuscript tradition that have diverged, such asPiers Plowman,editio princeps is a less meaningful concept.
The term has long been extended by scholars to works not part of the Ancient Greek and Latin literatures. It is also used for legal works, and other significant documents.
For fuller lists of literature works, see:
The following is a selection of notable literature works.
| Date | Author,Work | Printer | Location | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1454 | Biblia Vulgata | Johannes Gutenberg | Mainz | The 4th century translation of theBible, two editions: 42 line and 36 line, seeGutenberg Bible. |
| 1465[3] | Cicero,De Oratore[3] | Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz[3] | Subiaco[3] | This edition was published without date but it is believed to be before September 1465.[3] |
| 1465–1470[4] | Augustinus,Confessiones[4] | Johannes Mentelin[5] | Strasbourg[4] | The second edition came out inMilan in 1475, followed by editions in 1482 and 1483. Other two incunable editions came from Strasbourg in 1489 and 1491, but the book was not separately reprinted until 1531.[6] |
| 1467[7] | Augustinus,De Civitate Dei[7] | Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz[8] | Subiaco[7] | The following yearJohannes Mentelin printed inStrasbourg another edition; it offered the earliest textual commentary, by Thomas Valois andNicholas Trivet.[7] For the next two centuries, theDe Civitate was the most often printed of all Augustine's works; 17 editions appeared in the 15th century and eight in the 16th century.[6] |
| 1469[9][10] | Livius[9] | Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz[9] | Rome[9] | Edited byJoannes Andreas de Buxis.[11] The Rome edition included only Books 1–10, 21–32, 34–39 and a portion of 40. In a 1518 Mainz edition, the rest of Book 40 and part of 33 were published, while in a 1531 Basel edition, Books 41–45 were published, edited bySimon Grynaeus. He had discovered the only surviving manuscript of the fifth decade in 1527 while searching in theLorsch Abbey inGermany. In 1616 the remaining part of Book 33 was published in Rome, by which all extant Livy had reached print.[10][12] |
| Periochae[13] | ||||
| 1469[14][15][16] | Vergilius[11] | Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz[11] | Rome[14] | Edited byJoannes Andreas de Buxis.[11] Together with the three standard Virgilian works, Busi included theAppendix Vergiliana andDonatus'Vita Vergilii. He also included thePriapeia, then attributed to Virgil.[15][16] |
| Priapeia[16] | ||||
| Appendix Vergiliana[15] | ||||
| Aelius Donatus,Vita Vergilii[15] | ||||
| 1469[17] | Julius Caesar[11][17] | Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz[11] | Rome[17] | Edited byJoannes Andreas de Buxis.[11] |
| 1469[18] | Plinius Maior[18] | Johannes de Spira[18] | Venice[18] | |
| 1469[19] | Aulus Gellius[11][19] | Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz[11] | Rome[11] | Edited byJoannes Andreas de Buxis.[11][19] |
| 1470[20] | Sallustius,Bellum Catilinae andBellum Iugurthinum[21] | Vindelinus de Spira[20][21] | Venice[20] | In the same year an edition of Sallust was also printed in Paris.[20] |
| 1470[22] | Suetonius,De Vita Caesarum[23] | Johannes Philippus de Lignamine[23] | Rome[22] | Edited byJohannes Antonius Campanus.[24] |
| c. 1470[25][26] | Tacitus,Historiae,Annales,Germania andDialogus[25] | Vindelinus de Spira[26] | Venice[26] | This edition only has books 11–16 of theAnnales. Books 1–6 were rediscovered in 1508 in theCorvey Abbey (now inGermany) and brought to Rome. There they were printed byÉtienne Guillery in 1515 together with the other books of theAnnales while the edition was prepared byFilippo Beroaldo.[25][27][28] |
| 1471[29] | Ovidius[29] | Baldassarre Azzoguidi[30] | Bologna[29] | Edited byFranciscus Puteolanus. There is some dispute regarding the possibility it may have been preceded by the Roman edition printed bySweynheym and Pannartz, which is without date but thought to be also from 1471.[11][29][30] |
| c. 1471[31] | Boethius,De Consolatione Philosophiae[31] | Hans Glim[31] | Savigliano[31] | Undated, others have suggested the incunable's date to be 1473 or 1474. This would probably make theeditio princeps the lavish edition that came out in Nuremberg in 1473 fromAnton Koberger's press, containing a commentary traditionally attributed toThomas of Aquin and a German translation.[32] |
| 1471–1472[33] | Varro,De lingua latina[34] | Georgius Lauer[34] | Rome[34][33] | Edited byJulius Pomponius Laetus[34] |
| 1472[35] | Plautus[35] | Johannes de Colonia[36]-1470[37] | Venice[35] | Edited byGeorgius Merula basing himself on theCodex Ursinianus. With a dedication to Iacopo Zeno, bishop ofPadua.[35][38] |
| 1472[39][40] | Macrobius,In Somnium Scipionis[39] andSaturnalia[40] | Nicolaus Jenson[39] | Venice[39] | |
| c. 1475[41] | Beda,Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum[41] | Heinrich Eggestein[42][43] | Strasbourg[41] | The edition is undated, but it is agreed to have been printed between 1474 and 1482. It was followed in the same town in 1500 by a second edition, this time bounded with a Latin translation ofEusebius'Historia Ecclesiastica.[41] |
| 1475[44][45] | Seneca Philosophus,Dialogi,De beneficiis,De Clementia andEpistulae morales ad Lucilium[44] | Matthias Moravus[46] | Naples[44] | The first complete edition ofSeneca's philosophical works. Due to a confusion between the son and the father the volume also includesSeneca the Elder's widely known epitomized version composed of excerpts from hisSuasoriae et Controversiae; the complete surviving text was printed in 1490 in Venice byBernardinus de Cremona together with the younger Seneca. Also in the edition isPublilius Syrus, whoseSententiae are in the so-calledProverbia Senecae. The mistake was corrected in 1514 byErasmus when the latter published inSouthwark in 1514 an edition of Publilius that is generally considered to be the realeditio princeps. Erasmus was followed inLeipzig in 1550 byGeorg Fabricius, who also added twenty new sentences to the print.[47][44][48][49] |
| Seneca Rhetor[47] | ||||
| Publilius Syrus[50] | ||||
| 1475[51][52] | Historia Augusta[51] | Philippus de Lavagna[53] | Milan[52] | Edited byBonus Accursius.[53] |
| 1510[54] | Quintus Aurelius Symmachus,Epistulae andRelationes[54] | Johann Schott[54] | Strasbourg[54] | |
| 1512[55][56] | Gregorius Turonensis,Historia Francorum andDe Gloria Confessorum[55] | Jodocus Badius Ascensius[55] | Paris[55] | |
| Ado Viennensis,Chronicon[55] | ||||
| 1478[57]–1479[58] | Aesopus,Fabulae[53][57] | B. & J. A. de Honate[53] | Milan[53] | Edited byBonus Accursius. Undated, the book contained also a Latin translation by Ranuccio Tettalo. These 127 fables are known as theCollectio Accursiana, the newest of the threerecensions that form the GreekAesopica. The oldest Greek recension is theCollectio Augustana, in 231 fables, that was published only in 1812 byJohann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider inBreslau. The last recension is theCollectio Vindobonensis, made of 130 fables, that was first edited in 1776 byThomas Tyrwhitt.[59][58][60][61] ConcerningThe Aesop Romance, of it also three recensions exist: the one printed in this edition is theVita Accursiana, while the second to be printed was in 1845 theVita Westermanniana, edited inBraunschweig byAnton Westermann. The Last recension to be printed was theVita Perriana, edited in 1952 inUrbana byBen Edwin Perry.[53][62][63][64] |
| Vita Aesopi[53][62] | ||||
| c. 1482[57] | Hesiodus,Opera et dies[53][57] | B. & J. A. de Honate[53] | Milan[53] | Edited by Bonus Accursius.[53] Undated, only Theocritus' first 18 idylls are contained in this edition.[57] A wider arrange of idylls appeared in the 1495–1496Aldine Theocritus which had idylls I-XXIII.[65] A further amount of yet unpublished idylls were printed in Rome together with their oldscholia byZacharias Calliergis in his 1516 edition of Theocritus.[66] |
| Theocritus,Idyllia[53][57] | ||||
| 1484–1487[67] | Frontinus, | Pomponius Laetus, Sulpicius Veranus[67] | Rome[67] | Text of FrontinusDe aq. based on manuscript acquired byPoggio Bracciolini inMonte Cassino monastery in 1429.[67] |
| Vitruvius, | ||||
| 1488–1489[68] | Homerus,Ilias andOdyssea[68] | Florence[68] | Edited byDemetrius Chalcondyles, the book was printed with the help ofDemetrius Damilas [fr] that reelaborated the Greek types he had previously used in Milan. The editorial project was completed thanks to the financial support ofGiovanni Acciaiuoli [it] and the patronage of Neri andBernardo de' Nerli [it] together with, the latter also author of an opening dedication toPiero de' Medici. The edition includes also the previously printedBatrachomyomachia. As for the typography the volume has traditionally been attributed to the prolific printerBartolomeo de' Libri [de], attribution denied by recent scholarship. The issue thus remains unresolved.[68][69][70] | |
| Hymni Homerici[68] | ||||
| Ps.-Herodotus,De vita Homeri[71] | ||||
| Ps.-Plutarch,De vita et poesi Homeri[71] | ||||
| Dio Cocceianus,De Homero[71] | ||||
| c. 1494[72] | Euripides,[73]Medea,Hippolytus,Alcestis andAndromache[74] | Laurentius de Alopa[73] | Florence[73] | Edited by Janus Lascaris. The volume, undated, was printed sometime before June 18, 1494.[73] The typographic font was, as usual with Lascaris, only made of capital letters.[72] |
| 1495–1498[75][76] | Aristoteles[75] | Aldus Manutius[75] | Venice[77] | An edition in five volumes infolio of the complete works of Aristotle. The first volume was printed in November 1495 while the last came out in 1498. Theophrastus' works came out together in 1497.[77] Notably absent in this edition of Aristotle's works are theRhetorica and thePoetica and also theRhetorica ad Alexandrum.[78][79] Concerning theProblemata, they came out in 1497 in its shorterrecension in two books; the longer recension in four books came out in Paris in 1857 due toHermann Usener.[80] As for Theophrastus, all his published works came out in 1497 dispersed through the second, third and fourth volumes.[76] |
| Theophrastus,De signis,De causis plantarum,De historia plantarum,De lapidibus,De igne,De odoribus,De ventis,De lassitudine,De vertigine,De sudore,Metaphysica,De piscibus in sicco degentibus[76][81][82] | ||||
| Porphyrius,[75]Isagoge[83] | ||||
| Philo,De mundo[84] | ||||
| Ps.-Alexander Aphrodisiensis,Problemata[85][80] | ||||
| Diogenes Laërtius,Vita Aristotelis andVita Theophrasti[86] | ||||
| 1499[68] | Suda[68] | I. Bissolus & B. Mangius[87] | Milan[68] | Edited by Demetrius Chalcondyles.[68] |
| 1502[88] | Sophocles[88] | Aldus Manutius[88] | Venice[88] | |
| 1502[89] | Thucydides,Historiae[89] | Aldus Manutius[89] | Venice[89] | |
| Dionysius Halicarnasseus,Epistola ad Ammaeum II[90] | ||||
| 1502[91] | Herodotus,Historiae[91] | Aldus Manutius[91] | Venice[91] | |
| 1502[92] | Stephanus Byzantinus,Ethnica[92] | Aldus Manutius[92] | Venice[92] | |
| 1503[74] | Euripides[74] | Aldus Manutius[74] | Venice | This edition included all of the dramatist's plays except forElectra. Generally thought to have been edited byMarcus Musurus.[74] |
| 1503[93] | Xenophon,Hellenica[93] | Aldus Manutius[93] | Venice[93] | |
| 1504[94] | Demosthenes[94] | Aldus Manutius[94] | Venice[94] | |
| 1515[95] | Aristophanes,Lysistrata andThesmophoriazusae[95] | Philippus Junta[95] | Florence[95] | First complete edition of all eleven Aristophanes' plays.[95] |
| 1516[96][97] | Strabo,Geographica[96][97] | Aldine Press[97] | Venice[96][97] | |
| 1516[98] | Pausanias,Graeciae descriptio[98] | Aldine Press[98] | Venice[98] | Edited byMarcus Musurus.[99] |
| 1517[100] | Plutarch,Vitae Parallelae[100] | Philippus Junta[100] | Florence[100] | |
| 1518[101] | Aeschylus[101] | Aldine Press[101] | Venice[101] | Edited byFranciscus Asulanus [it]. This edition contains only 6 of Aeschylus' 7 surviving tragedies: missing is theChoephoroe. This is because the manuscripts had fusedAgamemnon andChoephoroe, omitting lines 311–1066 ofAgamemnon, a mistake that was corrected for the first time in 1552 in the Venetian edition edited byFranciscus Robortellus. The separation was not fully successful as the text was not correctly divided, leaving it to the 1557 Paris edition byPetrus Victorius, printed with an appendix byHenricus Stephanus, to finally obtain an adequate edition of Aeschylus' plays.[101][102][103] |
| 1530[104] | Polybius,Historiae[104] | Johannes Secerius[105] | Hagenau[104] | A part of Book VI had been already printed in Venice in 1529 byJohannes Antonio de Sabio [de], edited byJanus Lascaris with his Latin translation incorporated. The 1530 edition, edited byVincentius Obsopoeus, only contained Books I–V together with their Latin translation made byNicolaus Perottus. What survived of the rest of Polybius thanks to theexcerpta antiqua of the other Books was first printed by Joannes Hervagius in Basel in 1549 together with a Latin translation byWolfgang Musculus. Further Polybian excerpts came to light thanks toFulvius Ursinus that inAntwerp in 1582 publishedConstantinus Porphyrogenitus'Excerpta de legationibus. All this additional material was incorporated inIsaac Casaubon's 1609 Polybius Paris edition.[104][106][107][108][109] |
| 1533[97] | Ptolemaeus,Geographia[97] | Hieronymus Frobenius[97] | Basel[97] | |
| 1539[98] | Diodorus Siculus,Bibliotheca historica[110] | Johannes Oporinus[110] | Basel[110] | Edited byVincentius Obsopoeus. Only books XVI–XX were printed.[104] In 1559Henricus Stephanus printed inGeneva all complete surviving books, that is I–V and XI–XX. To this Stephanus also added a summary left byPhotius of the lost books.[111] |
| 1544[112] | Archimedes[112] | Joannes Hervagius[113] | Basel[112][113] | Edited byThomas Gechauff Venatorius.[113] |
| 1544[114] | Flavius Josephus[114][115] | Hieronymus Frobenius & Nicolaus Episcopius[114] | Basel[114] | Edited byArnoldus Arlenius. The volume also contained the4 Maccabees, then attributed to Josephus.[115][116] |
| 1548[117] | Cassius Dio[117] | Robertus Stephanus[117] | Paris[117] | Only contains Books 23 and 36–58.[117] |
| 1551[85] | Appianus[85] | C. Stephanus[85] | Paris[85] | |
| 1557[118] | Joannes Zonaras,Annales[118] | Johannes Oporinus[119] | Basel[119] | Edited byHieronymus Wolfius.[118] |
| 1559[120] | Marcus Aurelius,Meditationes[120] | Andreas Gesner[120] | Zürich[120] | Edited byGuilielmus Xylander. Both texts are translated in Latin, theMeditationes by Xylander. He also added some passages on evidence regardingMarcus Aurelius taken from theSuda and fromAurelius Victor.[120] |
| 1610[121] | Anna Comnena,Alexias[121] | Ad insigne pinus[121] | Augsburg[121] | Edited byDavid Hoeschelius.[121] |