4to, unnumbered lvs, parallel (interleaved) text in Greek and Latin, woodcut Aldine device on verso of colophon. With 2 errata lvs. Some damp staining. Modern bookplate George MacDonald. Manuscript notes in Greek on last page. Bound in half vellum
Ref. Aldo Manuzio tipografo 86; UCLA 67; Renouard 46/4; Edit16 36115. This work forms the third volume of Aldus's Poetae Christiani veteres, issued between January 1501 and June 1504. It is the editio princeps of the poems of Gregorius Nazanzenius (+389), famous as one of the greatest lights of the Eastern Church. Aldus printed the Greek and Latin texts on separate sheets which could either be bound in separate sequences or interleaved, as in the present copy. The text length differed between the two languages, resulting in blank pages, and Aldus, in a moment of frugality, decided to fill the space -- in the middle of the work of St. Gregory -- with a the Gospel of St. John. This is the first considerable portion of the New Testament printed in Greek
