This printed edition was a major literary event. It contains the Iliad and Odyssey, but also the comedy Batrachomyomachia and Hymns to Apollo. The edition was commissioned by the Athenian Demetrios Chalkocondyles (1423-1511), first professor of Greek in the University of Padua.
He moved to Florence in 1475 and taught Greek there until 1491. The 1488 printed edition of Homer was funded by two Florentine Greek scholars, the brothers Nerli.
This copy numbers 437 sheets but its cover is missing. The initials at the beginning of each rhapsody are also missing, though the required space has intentionally been left blank.
