Onomasticon [In Greek]. Vocabularium. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1502.
Folio (320 x 211 mm). A⁸ a-n⁸. Double column, Greek type, title and index also in roman and dedication in italic type. Early 19th century navy straight-grained morocco gilt by CHARLES HERING (binder's ticket), with Spencer arms on both covers, spine in compartments, tooled in blind and gilt-lettered, broad gilt turn-ins, paste-downs stamped in blind, all edges gilt. Greek inscription on index title washed out, spine with mild sunning and a few nicks.
Provenance: Count Karoly Imre Sandor de Reviczky [?] (catalog p 77); George John, Earl Spencer [1758-1834] (armorial binding and morocco bookplate); Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (1892 purchase); gift to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (bookplate and small de-accession label, their sale, Sotheby's, Apr 14, 1988, lot 69).

FIRST EDITION OF THE GREEK TEXT: THE VERY FINE SPENCER-RYLANDS COPY. Pollux was a second-century rhetorician from Naucratis in Egypt. The Onomasticon is a list of Attic words arranged by topic. "The work partly resembles a rhetorical handbook, e.g. in its collections of synonyms and of subject vocabularies ... in the fifty-two terms for use in praising a king, or the thirty-three terms of abuse to apply to a tax collector" (Oxford Classical Dictionary). Contains terminology on subjects such as Greek theater, Athenian government, cooking, children's games, etc., some of which is preserved with no other sources. Adams P1787; Renouard 32.