Strabo Geography front.preface.18

[18] The first appearance of Strabo’s work in print was a Latin translation by Guarini, of Verona, and Gregorio of Tiferno. Of this, thirteen editions were printed, the first in 1469 or 1471, the twelfth in 1559, and the last in 1652. It is not known from what manuscripts the translation was taken, nor whether they now exist; but, though the translation itself is barbarous, and in many passages erroneous, its fidelity to the original is so apparent, that all editors to the present time have consulted it as a manuscript.

The first edition of the Greek text was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1516, and was taken from so corrupt a manuscript that Coraÿ compares it to the Augean stable. The second edition was a repetition of the Aldine, accompanied by the Latin translation of Guarini, and was published by Hopper and Heresbach, at Bâsle, in 1549. The third edition, by Xylander, in 1570, was also a repetition of the text of Aldus; but a new Latin translation accompanied it. The fourth and fifth editions, which do not essentially differ, were published in 1587 and 1620, by Isaac Casaubon. He collated for his edition four manuscripts, which he obtained from his father-in-law, H. Stephens, and was the first to add a commentary; but it is not known what manuscripts were made use of. The edition of Almeloveen, 1707, being a reprint of Casaubon, with notes, and an edition commenced by Brequigny, Paris, 1763, but not continued beyond the first three books, can scarcely be placed among the number of new editions. Brequigny left a French translation in manuscript and notes in Latin, which were consulted by the French translators.

The seventh edition was that of Thomas Falconer of Chester, and of Brasennose College, published in 2 vols. folio, at Oxford, 1807. For the first time since Casaubon’s last edition, nearly 200 years before, manuscripts were collated for this edition, namely, those of Eton, Moscow, the Escurial, and the Laurentian library; the conjectural emendations of Tyrwhitt, and notes of the editor and others, are added. It has everything that is valuable in Casaubon’s edition, besides having corrected numberless typographical errors. In the account given of it, the public are as much wronged as we are abused; for no view whatever is laid before them of its nature or its merits. ¹ Thos. Falconer, having prepared the greater part of the work for the press, died in 1792. A little more than the two first books were edited by John Parsons, Bishop of Peterborough, and formerly Master of Balliol College, Oxford; but the whole work was, ultimately, in 1802 given up to Thomas Falconer (nephew of the former), of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who completed it and wrote the preface. A complete revisal of the text, however, was not attempted.