THE FIRST PRINTED WORK ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. ARISTOTLE. 384-322 B.C.E. Politica. Oeconomica. [St...

THE FIRST PRINTED WORK ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. ARISTOTLE. 384-322 B.C.E. Politica. Oeconomica. [Strassburg: Johann Mentelin, not before April 10, 1469.] Folio (292 x 205 mm). Containing the complete Politica and Oeconomica [bound without Ethica ad Nicomachean], 110 leaves (of 198) including blank leaf 128, 32 lines, Typ. 5:92G, 13 finely illuminated initials, 4 with elaborate floral extensions, and two smaller initials, incipits supplied in red. Early 19th-century russia, gilt arms and initials of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes to each cover, spine in six compartments, gilt lettered in second, repair to upper corner of final leaf, small continuous wormhole through final 30 leaves. Provenance: manuscript annotations in an early hand; Mark Masterman-Sykes (armorial binding), sold his sale, 1st part, May 11, 1824, lot 161, to Thomas Thorpe; Edward Huth (1847-1935, engraved armorial bookplate), sold Sotheby's, July 3, 1923, lot 231; to Albert May Todd (his bookplate); sold, his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, October 16, 1929, lot 192; Clara & Irwin Strasburger collection (morocco bookplate), sold Sotheby's, New York, December 6, 1984, lot 6. THE FIRST PRINTING OF ANY WORK BY ARISTOTLE, AND THE FIRST PRINTED WORK OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE. Aristotle conceived man to be a political animal by nature, and the State (polity) accordingly both properly necessary and critical to human existence. Aristotle's Politics analyzes the different forms of government and emphasizes the importance of a mixed and balanced constitution as a framing document for the state. Significantly, Aristotle's Politics also contains the first theoretical consideration of money and its function in polity. According to Joseph Schumpeter, Aristotle's treatment of money in his Politica forms 'the basis of the bulk of all analytical work in the field of money' — including his views of money as a medium of exchange and as the measure and store of value — a view of monetary theory that 'prevailed substantially until the end of the nineteenth century and even beyond.' The text of the Oeconomica which here accompanies the Politica may have been composed by Aristotle's great student Theophrastus, and it elaborates the use value of money in context of the individual household (Greek oikos), the fundamental social unit of the State. Johann Mentelin was one of the great early printers, possibly introduced to the printing art by Gutenberg himself. Mentelin published important scholarly editions of theology and philosophy, including the first edition of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica, the second (or third) Bible in Latin (after Gutenberg) in 1460, and the first Bible printed in the vernacular (German, 1466). Mentelin's edition of Aristotle typically contains two component texts, the Ethics and the Politics, but we note the existence of important copies similar to the present containing just this part (at Milan and Glasgow), as well as copies containing the Ethics only (e.g. King George III's copy at the British Library). While the 1469 Aristotle is fairly well represented in major institutions, the book is very rare in private hands. A seminal work in the history of thought and printing, representing both the first printed appearance of Aristotle and the first printed work of political and economic science. See Meikle, 'Aristotle on Money,' Phronesis 39:1 (1994), pp. 26-44; Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, 1954; Balow, John, '20 of the Most Important Books for Economics before 1940,' https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/06/18/20-important-books-economics-pre-1940. BMC I, 53; GW 2367; Goff A-983; Hain 1762*. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing