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This new volume collects, in their edited and enriched form, the papers presented at the colloquium “One book, six centuries of history”, organized by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation on 13 April 2019. Articles are in Greek and English, each in the language of the original presentation. An abstract (in English and Greek respectively) is provided at the end of each article.

The volume focuses on the incunabula that survive to this day in libraries all around Athens, both public and private. Taking as a starting point a specific book from each invited library, as a case study, the participants present their selected copy, focusing on issues of provenance, copy-specific elements and the overall handling of relevant material included in the collection.

In the first part of the volume, distinguished scholars from Greece and abroad present several issues of early printing history.

Cristina Dondi, Professor of Early European Book Heritage in Oxford and Secretary of CERL, offers an introductory paper, also the opening talk of the colloquium, which presents the project 15cBookTrade and highlights the importance of incunabula in the study of European history.

Dennis Rhodes, former deputy keeper at the British Library, recounting his first visit to Greece, takes us with him on an exciting hunt for incunabula around Greek libraries in the 1970s. Following in his footsteps, historian Geri Della Rocca de Candal takes up the hunt in 2016, illustrating the continuity and importance of such research. but also the surprises and challenges it presents.

Agamemnon Tselikas, Palaeographer, Head of Historical and Palaeographical Archive of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, discusses aspects of the printing and commercial activity in Venice and presents significant material from the Judicial Archives of the Patriarchate of Venice.

Greek editions and printing inevitably are put in the spotlight as historian of printing and books and former Head of conservation at the British Library, Nicolas J. Barker, writes about their form and influence throughout the ages.

In addition, Yiannis Kokkonas, Professor in the Department of Archives, Library Science and Museology, Ionian University, studies the term “Greek typography” from its technological point of view, describing its largely “logographic” typesetting as a noteworthy technical particularity.

Finally, two papers focus on collections or items of Greek interest in their respective institutions. Astrid Balsem, Curator of Special Collections, University of Amsterdam Library, describes the Paul Auerbach Collection in the University of Amsterdam library and sheds light on the issue of collecting Greek editions in the first half of the 20th century. David Speranzi, Head of the manuscripts and rare books department, National Central Library in Florence, offers a full bibliological and palaeographical analysis of the striking copy in illustrated vellum of the first edition of Homer (Florence, 1488) found in the National Central Library of Florence.

In the second part, seven articles from representatives of Athenian libraries focus on specific incunabula from their collections:

• Τα Ερωτήματα του Χρυσολωρά: ένα σπάνιο αρχέτυπο στη Βιβλιοθήκη της Βουλής. [Chrysoloras’ Erotemata: a rare incunable in the Library of the Hellenic Parliament.]

Elli Droulia discusses issues of dating, location and bibliographic descriptions of a 1476 edition of Chrysoloras’ Erotemata, a handbook of Greek grammar in wide circulation during the 15th century. Her presentation also offers detailed information on the physical characteristics of the copy preserved in the Hellenic Parliament Library.

• Σκέψεις και παρατηρήσεις γύρω από ένα αρχέτυπο του 1481. [Thoughts and observations on an incunable of 1481.]

The presentation of the Abbreviatio by Flavio Biondo (Rome: Oliverius Servius 1481) by Leonora Navari and Maria Yiouroukou from the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation offers, among other things, details on the technical characteristics of this particular edition, as well as an insight on the work of the printer/editor Oliverius Servius and his role in book production of the period.

• Οι αρχέτυπες εκδόσεις του Bernhard von Breydenbach στη Συλλογή Φινόπουλου-Μουσείο Μπενάκη. [The incunable editions of Bernhard von Breydenbach in the Finopoulos Collection – Benaki Museum.]

The team of researchers and curators of the Finopoulos Collection (Athina Zoupanti, Maria Xenariou, Mirka Palioura and Konstantinos Stephanis) take us on a fascinating journey around the Mediterranean, as we read about Bernhard von Breydenbach’s Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam, in both the Latin and German edition of 1486.

The book is a milestone for travel literature, as the first illustrated edition in early printing activity.

• Genealogiae Ioannis Boccatii: μια ουμανιστική μυθολογική εγκυκλοπαίδεια στη Συλλογή Αρχετύπων της Γενναδείου Βιβλιοθήκης.[Genealogiae Ioannis Boccatii: a humanistic mythological encyclopedia in the Incunabula Collection of the Gennadius Library.]

The Gennadius Library copy of the Genealogiae Ioannis Boccatii (1494/95), as presented by Eirini Solomonidi, is of particular interest due to its illustrations and intricate woodcuts, but also for the light it sheds on Greek collectors and the circulation of old material in Greece during the 19th and 20th centuries.

• Καταγραφή και μελέτη αρχετύπων της Εθνικής Βιβλιοθήκης της Ελλάδος. Η περίπτωση του ελληνικού Ψαλτηρίου του Άλδου Μανούτιου. [Cataloguing and studying the incunabula of the National Library of Greece. The case of the Greek Psalterium of Aldus Manutius.]

The research team of the National Library of Greece (Nikolas Sarris, Giorgos Stavratis, Christina Tsaroucha, Marilia Apostolaki and Katerina Lygnou) present the particularities of three copies of the Psalterium of Aldus Manutius; upon examination of the paper used, the team proposes a narrower estimate of the edition’s dating.

Their study offers an interesting interdisciplinary research model for the incunabula collection of the National Library.

• Από την Αναγέννηση στον ελληνικό 18ο αιώνα: αστρονομική παράδοση στην αλδινή έκδοση Scriptores astronomici veteres (1499) της συλλογής Ι.Π.Α./Μ.Ι.Ε.Τ. [From the Renaissance to the Greek 18th Century: astronomical tradition in the aldine edition of Scriptores astronomici veteres (1499) from the collection of the Historical and Palaeographical Archive (National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation).]

Venetia Chatzopoulou from the IPA/MIET discusses the Aldine Scriptores astronomici veteres (1499), one of the very few editions of Aldus’ with a remarkable number of images, and traces its journey through time, providing information on the teaching of Astronomy during the Modern Greek Enlightenment.

• Τυπογραφικά «κοσμήματα»: μια αρχέτυπη φιλοσοφική έκδοση με χρυσοτυπία στη συλλογή του Ιδρύματος Αικατερίνης Λασκαρίδη. [‘Ornaments’ of print: an incunable philosophical edition with printing in gold in the collection of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation.]

A typographic rarity, printing with gold, in Ammonius’ Commentarii in Quinque voces Porphyrii (1500) by famous Cretan printers Zacharias Callierges and Nicolaus Blastus is the main focus in the article by the curating team of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation (Angeliki Papadopoulou, Kleopatra Kyrtata and Vera Andriopoulou).

In memoriam Dennis E. Rhodes (1923-2020)