XII
Reading edition
[A letter written in 1507 to the famous printer Aldus (1449-1515) proposing a new edition of the translations from Euripides mentioned in XI. Aldus assented and the book appeared in Dec. 1507.]
2. UTRIQUE] Greek and Latin.
7. VOLITATURUS] Cf. Ennius in Cic. Tusc. 1. 15. 34:
Nemo me lacrimis decoret nec funera fletu Faxit. Cur? Volito vivu' per ora virum.
20. Paul of Aegina was a Greek writer on medicine, whose works were much esteemed in the sixteenth century.
27. William Latimer (c. 1460-1545) was an Oxford scholar of great fame in his own day. He had recently been studying in Italy.
28. Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559) was a scholar and lawyer, who after discharging important embassies was made Bishop of London in 1522, and Bishop of Durham in 1530. He also had been studying in Italy shortly before this time.
33. Badius' edition had been published in Sept. 1506.
38, 9. Cf. Soph. Ajax 362, 3:
[Greek: Euphaema phonei mae kakon kako didous Akos, pleon to paema taes ataes tithei.]
41. MINUTIORIBUS ILLIS] The famous 'italic' type, first cast for Aldus, and said to have been modelled on the handwriting of Politian, the Italian humanist.
54. MERCURIUS] Cf. IX. 21 n.