CORSINI Odoardo, DISSERTATIONES QUATRUOR AGONISTICAE QUIBUS OLYMPIORUM, PYTHIORUM, NEMEORUM ATQUE ISTHMIORUM TEMPUS INQVUIRITUR AC DEMONSTRATUR, Florence, 1747

Description

DISSERTATIONES QUATRUOR AGONISTICAE QUIBUS OLYMPIORUM, PYTHIORUM, NEMEORUM ATQUE ISTHMIORUM TEMPUS INQVUIRITUR AC DEMONSTRATUR. ACCEDIT HIERONICARUM CATALOGUSS LIBRI QUATRUOR 

Firenze, E Typographio Imperiali, 1747

In-4to, 265×195 mm; contemporary vellum; pp. 1b, XXI, 1 bl, 160, pamphlet between p. 68 e 69. Red and black title page with copper vignette, 3 large head pieces, woodcut initials, headpieces and finals. Slight sign of wear on title page, nice copy, with wide margins.

Comments:

Rare and important first edition. Each of the four dissertations examines the genesis, character, and performance of one of Greek games, while the appendix provides a very rich list of winners divided into games and race types, including Herodotus Halicarnassus as a rhetorical winner. Edoardo Corsini (1702-1765), from Fanano (Modena), was one of the most erudite scholars of the eighteenth-century Greek antiquities.