ESCHYLE. Æschyli tragœdiæ VII. Quæ cùm omnes multo quàm antea castigatiores eduntur, tum vero una, quæ mutila & decurtata prius erat, integra nunc profetur. [Geneva] : Henri Estienne, 1557. - In-4, 250 x 180: (4 ff.), 138 pp. *-**, pp. 139-395, (1 f. blank). Soft parchment overlay, remnants of leather ties, smooth spine (period binding). Renouard, Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne, pp. 116-117. FIRST COMPLETE EDITION OF THE SEVEN TRAGEDIES OF ESCHYLE, printed entirely in the so-called "King's Greek" typeface engraved by Claude Garamond and published by the Florentine humanist and philologist Pietro Vettori (1499-1585) and the humanist printer Henri Estienne . According to Monique Mund-Dopchie, this edition differs from the three previous ones in Greek given respectively by Aldus in 1518, Francesco Robortello in 1552 and Adrian Turnèbe also in 1552, by the fact that it is the first "to produce the complete text of Agamemnon on the basis of the best manuscript of this tragedy known so far, the Florentinus", which was at that time in the library of Pope Paul II. Then, it "presents, next to the text, a selection of scholias made from the editio princeps of Robortello and the brief and fine scholias transmitted by the Mediceus: these ancient and concise commentaries allow to understand without too much difficulty the verses of each tragedy. Finally, in the last pages of the volume, there are metrical glosses and, above all, notes of textual criticism written by Estienne, which give a valuable judgment on the numerous variants attested by the tradition. As it stands, the Vettori-Estienne edition was very successful, certainly during the Renaissance [...] but also until the dawn of the 19th century. For it was not until that time that philologists decided to question the work of the humanists and to consult the manuscripts themselves" (Monique Mund-Dopchie, Histoire du texte d'Eschyle à la Renaissance : mise au point préliminaire, in : L'Antiquité classique, tome 46, 1977, p. 172). A very fine copy in contemporary binding, with two important provenances. It comes indeed in the first place from the library of the poet Gérard-Marie IMBERT (1530-15...?), with his handwritten ex-libris on the title : " E libraria Gerar. Mariæ Imberti patricij Condamensis". A native of Condom in the Gers, he studied under Jean Dorat, principal of the Coqueret college in Paris, and befriended many scholars and poets, such as Pierre de Ronsard and Antoine de Baïf. His most famous collection is entitled Sonnets exotériques, first published in 1578. The copy is enriched with several handwritten notes of the time, in Greek and Latin, which are certainly in his hand. The latter's bookplate has been crossed out to make room for that of the bibliophile Charles de PRADEL (1644?-1796), bishop of Montpellier from 1676 to 1696 : " Ex Libris Biblio D. D. Caroli De Pradel epipi Montpe. " There is also a red wax seal with the arms of a clergyman, which are not those of Charles de Pradel and which we have not been able to identify. A very well preserved copy. In the binding there are two unbound copies of a fifteenth-century parchment manuscript. Missing the leather ties. Light staining in the margins of some leaves. Burn with missing top of the title, without affecting the text. Provenance: Gérard-Marie Imbert, with manuscript bookplate. - Charles de Pradel, with manuscript bookplate. - Wax stamp with arms.