3 - ΣΤΡΑΒΩΝΟΣ [Strabonis]: ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΕΩΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ ΒΙΒΛΟΙ ΙΖ [De Situ Orbis Libri XVII]. Basileae Henricum Petri, 1549

ΣΤΡΑΒΩΝΟΣ [Strabonis]: ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΕΩΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ ΒΙΒΛΟΙ ΙΖ [De Situ Orbis Libri XVII]. Basileae Henricum Petri, 1549 Second edition in Greek of the most famous work of ancient geography, following the editio princeps published by Aldus. In folio. Very early binding, most probably late 16th or early 17th century, leather over boards, quite worn but sound; covers rubbed at edges; joints and hinges weak but holding; all edges red. Complete: title, [2], index, 797 pp. Internally, almost all text is very clean and bright, without marginalia. Some browning and light waterstaining to the title page and index; waterstain affecting the lower part of the final gatherings, with some moisture marking the last pages. Richly decorated printed initials throughout, and including the famous map of Libya found only in this edition. Parallel text in the original Greek with facing Latin translation. Overall a very good copy—mostly very clean and preserved in an early binding rarely encountered in a 500-year-old book. Xylander’s edition of Strabo is the first truly critical edition of the text, improving upon the transcription by Guarino and Trifernate, corrected by Hésychius, Gemuseus, and Hartung. The dedicatory letter, dated Basel, 26 August 1549, is followed by an extensive thematic index. Strabo’s Geographia, composed in the 2nd century AD and describing the entire known world, is the earliest comprehensive world geography ever compiled. A fine edition of this monumental classical work, with particular importance for Greece and the Levant.