Okhrimenko Oleksandr

The 1494 Venetian edition of Quintus Curtius Rufus "Historiae Alexandri Magni" from the collection of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine

Abstract: The purpose of the article to establish the features of the Venetian edition of "The History of Alexander the Great" by Quintus Curtius Rufus in 1494 and its copy, which is stored in the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, in the context of humanistic book printing and the history of book circulation. Research methodology combines codicological (study of the book copy), bibliographic and cataloging (studyof existing copies’ descriptions), fragmentological (study of manuscript fragments), and textological methods. Scientific novelty lies in the first comprehensive study of copy of the Venetian edition of "The History of Alexander the Great" by Quintus Curtius Rufus,1494, from the collection of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine IA 114, discovery and identification of a late 17th - early 18th century manuscript fragment containing Martin Kromer’s "Chronicl"" in Polish, which previously served as the book’s binding, and tracking the book’s migration through Volhynian institutions. Conclusions. The 1494 edition demonstrates characteristic features of humanistic printing and reveals ideological practices of the Venetian elite in the late 15th century. The V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine copy has a unique history of circulation, including its belonging to the library of Volhynian Orthodox Theological Seminary and Volhynian State Museum. The manuscript fragment is an important source for studying Polish historical tradition in 18th-century Ukrainian lands.

Keywords: incunabula, V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, Alexander the Great, Quintus Curtius Rufus, elites, royal court, history of reading, fragmentology.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/np.72.312     Citation

• Okhrimenko Oleksandr (Kyiv School of Economics (Kyiv, Ukraine), [email protected]) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5646-4133

Cite:
Okhrimenko Oleksandr (2024). The 1494 Venetian edition of Quintus Curtius Rufus "Historiae Alexandri Magni" from the collection of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine. Academic Papers of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, (72) 312-322. (In Ukrainan). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/np.72.312

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