Theodorus Gaza (c.1400 - c.1475) - photo 1
Theodorus Gaza (c.1400 - c.1475) - photo 2
Theodorus Gaza (c.1400 - c.1475) - photo 3

Theodorus Gaza (c.1400 - c.1475)

Lot 26
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1514443
Lot 26 | Theodorus Gaza (c.1400 - c.1475)
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Theodorus Gaza (c.1400 - c.1475)
Introduction to Grammar, Book I, in Greek, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy, second half 15th century]
A Greek grammar written in Humanist Italy, contemporaneous with its author's lifetime.

147 x 103mm. ii (paper) + i + 62 + ii (paper) leaves, complete, collation: 19(of 10, x a cancelled blank), 2-410, 58, 69 (of 10, i a cancelled blank), 76, the final 18 leaves blank, modern foliation in pencil 1-44 followed here, quire signatures survive, 14 lines written in an upright Greek minuscule, ruled space: 103 x 70mm, rubrics, initials and headings in red, gold initial opening text (some marginal staining and smudging else in good condition). Bound in 19th-century vellum over pasteboards, manuscript title on spine: 'Theodori/ Grammatica Graeca./ MSS.'.

Provenance:
(1) ?18th-century quotation in Italian on f.44v from Petrarch's Canzoniere: 'Nova angeleta sopra l'ali acorta scese dal cielo'.

(2) Rev. Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (1778-1841), of Harrow: his ownership inscription on f.ii dated 1819, with reference 'c.3.2'. His sale, Evans, A catalogue of the extensive and valuable library of the Rev. Henry Drury, 27 February 1827, lot 1536.

(3) Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872): his MS 3396, published in Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca D. Thomæ Phillipps, Bart., 1837, p.39, no 3396. Sold by Robinson in 1947 to:

(4) Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), stockbroker and bibliophile: his leather book label on inside upper cover. By descent to his daughter:

(5) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label on inside upper cover, MS 77. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 46. Published in Faye & Bond, Supplement, p.401, no 77.

Content:
Theodorus Gaza, Introduction to Grammar, beginning: 'Theodōrou grammatikēs eisagōgēs tōn eis tessara ton prōton', ff.1-44v.

The manuscript contains the first book of Byzantine scholar Theodorus Gaza's Introduction to Grammar, first published in print by Aldus Manutius in 1495. Gaza served as secretary to Emperor John VIII Palaiologos and became one of the leading figures in Greek studies in Renaissance Italy. He wrote this text for the use of his students while working as Professor of Greek at the University of Ferrara in 1440-1449.




Literature

Thomas Phillipps, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca D. Thomæ Phillipps, Bart., A.D. 1837 [Reprinted with an Introduction by A.N.L. Munby], repr. [London] Orskey-Johnson, 2001 (Privately printed, 1837), no 3396.

Faye & Bond Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.401, no 77.

P.O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, V, 1990, p. 350, no 77.
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