[PLATO] EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST PRINTING OF THE TIMAEUS. PLATO. FICINO, MARCELLO, Translator. T...

[PLATO] EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST PRINTING OF THE TIMAEUS. PLATO. FICINO, MARCELLO, Translator. Timaeus [WITH:] Critias. Florence: [nuns of San Jacopo di Ripoli for] Laurentius (Francisci) de Alopa, 1484. Folio (285 x 212 mm). 42 CONSECUTIVE LEAVES, comprising the complete parts III & IV from the First Printing of Plato's Opera, as printed in discrete parts at San Jacopo de Ripoli (see Kristeller). Collation: et8 cō4 rū6 [et]10 [con]8 [rum]6. 46 lines and headlines, two printed and two manuscript diagrams, double column, initial spaces, neatly bound in stiff modern wrappers. THE MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS OF THE PYTHAGOREANS. The first scientific cosmology, Plato's Timaeus is the midwife of the scientific ideal, articulating for the first time the idea of 'saving the phenomena' through mathematical reasoning. Plato not only provides geometrical models for celestial mechanics, but he further explores a broad range of sciences from hydraulics and metallurgy to botany and medicine—many of them for the first time. The Pythagoreans were renowned for their mathematical wisdom and symbolism—'the Pythagoreans philosophised in number' is an ancient saying—and the Timaeus is the greatest celebration of their scientific ideal. Plato's legendary tale of Atlantis, Critias, was printed together with the Timaeus. Plato's narrative of the 'Atlantean History' is in fact told synoptically in the Timaeus (and again told with greater detail in the Critias); and early commentators viewed the text as an extended allegory or parable about the balance of opposites in Nature. Arguably the world's most famous legend, Plato's Critias portrays Atlantis as a rich and highly advanced civilization that lost touch with virtue and exceeded its natural limits, becoming avaricious, warlike, and oppressive, arguing that the story of Atlantis was received from the priests of Egypt and that Atlantis existed 12,000 years ago. Many today think the story is a 'true history' of a global cataclysm. The first edition of Plato's Opera had a somewhat irregular printing history. The text appears to have been produced in 5 distinct parts using 2 presses, and ultimately two different printers were involved including the nuns at San Jacopo de Ripoli, the first printer to employ women. The text of the Timaeus-Critias was printed as part IV, and Ficino's introduction as Part III; and not only were these texts printed out of sequence and with their own distinctive and uncommon (auxiliary) signature markings, but they also appear to have been the last parts printed. The works of Plato were in high demand—an estimated 1,050 copies are said to have been printed—but only roughly 60 copies are known to have survived, many of them lacking a full complement of the Dialogues. Given the printing history of the book and the large number of seemingly 'incomplete' copies, it seems likely that, like the Aldine edition of Aristotle, the 1484 Plato Opera could be bought in parts. Plato has been called the 'father of the idea' and his Dialogues form the cornerstone of Western thought:'all of philosophy is a footnote to Plato,' according to Alfred North Whitehead. The ancient commentators on Plato conceived the Republic, Timaeus, and Critias to form a coherent trilogy of texts— ach text reinforcing the Republic's ideal possibility in its own way, with the Timaeus and Critias respectively articulating the Republic's place in nature and human history. Heisenberg saw modern physics in the Timaeus's mathematical description of matter, and many today see the Critias account of Atlantis's prideful destruction as a cautionary tale. Indeed, in context of our modern age of science and climate crisis, it is hard to imagine any Platonic works that speak more directly to our modern mindset and condition. Unparalleled for their originality and style, the Timaeus and Critias are masterpieces by any measure. Any part of the first printing of Plato is of the greatest rarity in private hands. REFERENCES: See BMC VI 666; BSB-Ink P-568; Goff P-771; HC 13062; PMM 27. Kristeller, 'The First Printed Edition of Plato's Works and the Date of Its Publication (1484),' Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Rome, 1993 pp 138 ff. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing