EDITIO PRINCEPS

In classical scholarship, '''editio princeps''' is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which were therefore circulated only after being copied by hand.
For example, the ''editio princeps'' of Homer is that of Demetrius Chalcondyles, now thought to be from 1488. The most important texts of classical Greek and Roman authors were for the most part produced in ''editio princeps'' in the years on either side of 1500.
The picture is complicated by the possibilities of partial publication, of publication first in translation (for example from Greek to Latin), and of a usage that simply equates with first edition. For a work, such as ''Piers Plowman'', with several strands of manuscript tradition that have diverged, it is a less meaningful concept.
The term has long been extended by scholars to works not part of the Ancient Greek and Latin literatures. It is also used for legal works, and other significant documents.

Contents

Partial list

See also

Partial list

Date	Author, ''Work''	Printer (''or location'')	Comment
1469	Lucan	Sweynheym and Pannartz
	Virgil	''Rome''
	Caesar, ''De Bello Gallico''	''Rome''
c.1469	Aulus Gellius	Sweynheym and Pannartz
1470	Suetonius, ''De Vita Caesarum''	''Rome''	Edited by Iohannis Antonius Campanus
1471	Ovid
1472	Diodorus Siculus	Poggio Bracciolini	partial Latin translation
	Cato Maior, ''De Agri Cultura''	''Venezia'' Nicolaus Jensonus	Edited by Georgius Merula
	Varro, ''Rerum Rusticarum libri tres''	''Venezia'' Nicolaus Jensonus	Edited by Georgius Merula in the same volume as the above.
c.1473	Marcus Manilius, ''Astronomicon''	Regiomontanus
	Claudian
1475	''Historia Augusta''
1482	Horatius	''Firenze''
c.1484	Serenus Sammonicus	Sulpitius Verulanus
1488	Avienus
	Homer	Demetrius Chalcondyles
c.1493	Hesiod, ''Works and Days''	Demetrius Chalcondyles
1493	Isocrates	Demetrius Chalcondyles
1496	Apollonius of Rhodes
1499	Alciphron
1499	Martianus Capella	Vicenza
1502	Sophocles
1504	Quintus Smyrnaeus	Aldus Manutius
1513	Lysias	Aldus Manutius
1513	Lycophron	Aldus Manutius
1515	Jordanes, ''Romana''	Konrad Peutinger
1520	Marcus Velleius Paterculus
1520	Rutilius Claudius Namatianus	J. B. Pius
1520	''Septuagint''		Complutensian Polyglot Bible
1520-3	''Talmud''	Daniel Bomberg
1522	''Greek New Testament''	Desiderius Erasmus
1544	Sozomen	Robert Estienne
1544	Josephus	Hieronymus Froben	Edited by Arnoldus Arlenius; first Greek edition
1549	Optatus of Milevis	Johannes Cochlaeus, F. Behem[1]	Mainz; 7th book printed 1569[2]
1553	Synesius	Adrianus Turnebus
1558	Marcus Aurelius, ''Meditations''	Xylander
1562	''Sefer Yetzirah''
1569	Nonnus
1575	Diophantus	Xylander
1598	Longus
1615	Laonicus Chalcondyles	J. B. Baumbach
1583	''Martyrologium romanum''
1661	Hippolytus, ''Antichrist''	Marquard Gude
1733	Genesius	Stephan Bergler
1750	Chariton	Pierre Mortier
1841	Francesco di Giorgio Martini, ''Trattato di Architectura''	Carlo Promis	Promis, however, published only six of the seven books. The last book which deals with all kinds of mechanical devices was omitted and subsequently escaped the notice of historians of technology for the next hundred years.[1]
1850	Hypereides	Churchill Babington
1897	Bacchylides	F. G. Kenyon
	''Rigveda ''	Max Müller

See also

★ Spread of printing

★ First edition