- London : Elliot Stock 1901
- 8vo.
- cloth.
- (viii), 472 pages.
- Order Nr. 270
- Price: $ 20.00

First edition. With the patronage and interest of Italian humanists and humanistically inclined rulers, Greek scholars, translators and teachers were already established in Italy at the time of the introduction of printing (which happened to come at about the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire). It was quickly realized that printing provided an opportunity for disseminating classical Greek texts and their translations, as a kind of extension of the teaching of Greek and classical Greek literature already taking place. Thus Greek texts, and persons able to copy, edit and translate these texts were needed, as well as individuals skilled in designing Greek types and printing in Greek. The first Italian book in Greek appeared in Milan, c. 1470. This book, volume one of a proposed history of pre-19th-century Greek printing, concentrates on five topics of the incunabula period: Greek-owned printing presses, editions of classical texts published by Italian presses with Greek participation, Greek books published by Italian printers, Latin translations (mostly by Greeks), and the production and use of Greek type, whether in Greek or non-Greek texts. The fourteen chapters are monographs of varying length, each organized around a Greek scholar, writer, editor, type-designer or printer, with a discussion of that person's life and works, a discussion of associates, and of printings and publications. For example, the discussion of Aldus Manutius constitutes a subsection of the chapter on Aldus' Greek collaborator and editor, Markos Mousouros. Persons selected did not necessarily have a direct connection with printing; Manuel Chrysoloaris, for example, died in Italy in 1415, but he was an influential teacher, one of whose works was repeatedly printed in the incunabula era. On the other hand, Zacharias Kallierges and Nikolaos Vlastos appear because they operated a Greek press in Venice and may have designed type. Chapters have extensive footnotes. There are also six tables, a list of abbreviations, a bibliography, and a general index. One-hundred twenty-eight illustrations include facsimiles of printed and manuscript texts, engraved portraits, printers' and publishers' marks, decorated Greek initials, and some headpieces. Laid-in at the back is a folded "Historical Map of Greek Printing" (14 x 25 in.). First published in Greek in 1989.