HOMER

£8,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

First complete edition of these iconic texts printed outside Italy, following Demetrios Chalkokondylas’ editio princeps in 1488. The two epic poems rapidly usurped Virgil from his throne of esteem during the Renaissance, and the enduring importance of Homer is epitomised through the continual teaching and regard for the poet from antiquity to the modern day. Wolfgang Köpfel’s Strasbourg-based operation utilised Greek print intended to emulate ancient handwriting, demonstrating a pioneering example of the humanistic shift in attention from Latin to Ancient Greek texts in the German Renaissance. This particular 1525 edition is rare, especially in a contemporary binding and the two volumes together. Indeed, Didbin states that all the works of Cephalus (Köpfel) are a rare occurrence, especially these two volumes. (Dibdin, 46). The woodcuts on the title pages have been found attributed to the hand of Hans Weiditz the younger, the German Renaissance artist also known as the Petrarch Master. Weiditz was one member of an elite circle of artists which included Hans Holbein and Albrecht Dürer. The woodcuts are from his time working with publishers in Strasbourg, where he lived from 1522 to 1536. They depict key tales and characters from the epic poems as well as the Muses and an artist’s impression of the blind poet himself. The Iliad woodcut climaxes in the pivotal battle between Achilles and Hector at the moment of Hector’s brutal demise. The Odyssey woodcut depicts key deities as we

• Binding: Hardcover

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