Gronovius, Johannes Fredericus: Observatorum in Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, [...], Monobiblos. (with) Observationum Liber Nonus, [...] Notis ad T. Livium [...]. Daventriae [Deventer]: typis Johannis Columbii, 1651; 1652. Two works in one vol. 8vo., pp. [xxvi], 292, [xxviii]; [xxiv], 431, [lxiii]. Printer's device to both title-pages, woodcut initials and decorative headpieces. A few leaves unopened at fore-edge. Occasional small spots (wax?) and smudges, very good. Contemporary vellum, titles inked to spine, fore-edges slightly overlapped, all edges blue. Pencilled booksellers' notes to front pastedown. A few marks to boards, endpapers toned, an approx. 3cm piece cut out of ffep possibly to remove a name, still very good. Two ownership inscriptions to ffep: D. Wyttenbach, dated August 1765, and J.A. Jeremie(?) dated 1863. The former is quite likely to be the classical scholar Daniel Wyttenbach (1746-1820), student of Hemsterhuis, Valckenaer and Ruhnken who, along with them, laid the foundations for modern Greek scholarship. In 1765 he was just ending his studies at the university in Marburg. Johannes Fredericus Gronovius (1611-1671) was in 1643 appointed professor of rhetoric and history at Deventer, before moving in 1658 to the Greek chair at Leiden, where he spent the rest of his life. Gronovius was the 6th Librarian of the University of Leiden (1665?1671) and, in a nice link, Wyttenbach became the 13th Librarian in 1799 following the death of David Ruhken. Wyttenbach also wrote a highly-regarded Life of his predecessor, which was published in Leiden in the same year. Ref: 54418show full image..
Harwood, Edward: A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics, with Remarks [...] London: printed for T. Becket [...] 1775. First edition. 8vo., pp. [ii], xxiv, 229, [iii]. Includes three-page catalogue of Harwood's books sold by Becket at rear. Some reversed writing in light pencil to p.96, seemingly offset from something no longer present. A few lightly smudges to title-page but generally clean internally. Mid-twentieth century half tan calf, gilt spine with label, brown marbled boards, edges sprinkled red. A bit rubbed, joints slightly worn but firm, small dent to top edge of upper board, still a very good copy. Pencil note to front paste-down: 'Coll. Christopher Dobson c.1967'. 'Harwood (1729?1794) was a prolific writer and author of numerous religious and biblical treatises and classical works. He once claimed to have written more books than anyone then living with the exception of Joseph Priestley. Of these the one which contributed most to his reputation as a scholar was A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics (1775), which by 1790 had run to four editions and had been translated into German (1778) and Italian (1780 and 1793).' (ODNB) ESTC T118350 Ref: 51811show full image..
Herbert, Edward (Lord Herbert of Cherbury): The Life and Reign of King Henry the Eighth. London: printed by M[ary] Clark, for Henry Herringman [?]. 1682. Folio, pp. [vi], 636, [xx] + portrait frontispiece. Title-page in red and black, woodcut initials, final leaf blank. 4G with short closed tear to lower margin not affecting text, a few light spots and smudges. Contemporary brown calf, spine label replaced, raised bands, blind-tooled borders and frames. Head- and tail-caps repaired, rubbed, joints creased and a bit worn, corners repaired, some spots and stains but still very good. Ownership inscription of Ja. Winstanley in an old hand to top of title-page. Third edition (the first published in 1649) of this apologetic Life of Henry VIII by the soldier, statesman and Deist philosopher Edward Herbert (1572-1648), elder brother of the poet George Herbert. ESTC R37413 Ref: 54896show full image..
[Historiae Augustae] (Casaubon, Isaac, ed.:) Histori? August? Scriptores Sex. Aelius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Aelius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio et Flavius Vopiscus [...]. Parisiis [Paris]: Apud Amberosium & Hieronymum Drouart, [...] cum privilegio Regis, 1603. First edition thus. 2 parts in 1 vol., 4to., pp. [xx], 375, [lvii]; 576, [xxxvi]. Illustrations in text. Title-page to first part in red and black, to second part in black only, woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces, with final errata leaf. Top corner of title-page a little frayed, first leaf of text with 2-line note in blue biro to head margin, head margins a bit dusty with very occasional light dampstains, occasional spots of foxing, a few paper flaws to fore-edge margins. Small scorch marks to pp.47-8 and pp.101-4 affecting a few letters, smudgy mark (ink or wax?) to fore-edge margin pp.115-22, ink spots to p.345. Contemporary semi-limp vellum, fore-edges slightly overlapped. Quite browned, covers somewhat creased, ties lost, turn-ins lifting, without ffep but still good and sound overall. Latin inscription in an old hand to title-page translates roughly as 'from the common library of the preachers of Dijon'. First appearance of Casaubon's edition of this collection of biographies of the emperors from Hadrian to Carinus, considered to be the first critical edition and also the first to use the title Histori? August?. (The title as recorded on the 9th-century Codex Palatinus manuscript of the Vatican Library is Vitae Diversorum Principum et Tyrannorum a Divo Hadriano usque ad Numerianum Diversis compositae, and it is generally thought that the work may have been originally known as de Vita Caesarum or Vitae Caesarum.) In early editions 'the emphasis had been laid on the Latin text, but in the seventeenth century the work of the editors included not only textual emendation, but comment and illustration. Of these editions the first was that of Casaubon, published in 1603. It was not unnatural that these biographies should have attracted the editor of Suetonius and Polybius and the scholar who wrote in the preface to his edition of the Historia Augusta that "political philosophy may be learned from history, and ethical from biography."' (from David Magie's introduction to his 1921 Loeb edition.) Though its authenticity was regarded with a little scepticism, Casaubon's edition was for hundreds of years used as a genuine source by historians (including Edward Gibbon in the first volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire). Browning sums up the tricky position the work occupies: "in modern times most scholars read the work as a piece of deliberate mystification written much later than its purported date, however the fundamentalist view still has distinguished support. [?] The Historia Augusta is also, unfortunately, the principal Latin source for a century of Roman history. The historian must make use of it, but only with extreme circumspection and caution." ('Biography', in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 2 (1983).) Graesse III, 303; Sandys II, 209; Schweiger II, 384. Ref: 54541show full image..
[Homer] Blackwell, Thomas: An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer. London: Printed [for J. Oswald], 1736. Second edition. 8vo., pp.[iv], 346, [lxxxii] + portrait frontispiece and folding map. Single leaf catalogue at rear. Many illustrations and elaborate engraved head- and tail-pieces in the text. Very faint dampstaining to bottom corner, offsetting from some illustrations. Contemporary brown calf, gilt spine with raised bands and title label, plain gilt borders. Worn, endcaps lost, joints split but cords holding, corners frayed, endpapers toned at edges, a good sound copy. The second edition of this pioneering study. 'Blackwell considered why Homer had been the supreme epic poet and concluded that his achievement was explicable almost entirely in terms of natural forces. Homer was the outcome of a specific historical context, social organization, geography, and climate, which combined to shape the culture he represented and which provided an ethos uniquely favourable to epic poetry' (ODNB). ESTC T70409. Ref: 54906show full image..
[Horace] Horatius Flaccus, Quintus: (Opera) Birminghamiae [Birmingham]: Johannis Baskerville, 1770. 4to., pp. [iv], 344 + engraved frontispiece signed Henriquez, but without the other four plates found in about half of the copies Gaskell examined. Title-page setting without the damaged letter D. With margins neatly ruled in red to each page. Occasional spots of foxing, the odd light smudge, p.112 a bit toned, very good. Contemporary calf, gilt spine with raised bands and title, blind-tooled borders and gilt frames to boards, marbled edges and endpapers. Originally dark reddish-brown, the spine and joints are much sunned, patch of further fading to lower board. First compartment of spine and both joints neatly repaired, some scuffs, small stains and scrapes, corners frayed, still a very good, sound copy overall. To front paste-down, armourial bookplate of Octavian Blewitt (1810?1884), English writer and long-serving secretary of the Royal Literary Fund. "The 4to. edition of 1770 is a very beautiful and extremely scarce work, the rarest of all Baskerville's editions. It is frequently chosen by the curious as a repository for any modern or antique design relating to the poet." (Dibdin) ESTC T46243; Gaskell 39; Dibdin II (4th edn.), 111. Ref: 54665show full image..
[Horace] Horatius Flaccus, Quintus: Ad lectiones probatiores diligenter emendatus, et interpunctione nova saepius illustratus. Editio quarta. Glasguae [Glasgow]: in aedibus academicis excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis, 1760. 4to, pp. [ii], xii, 307, [i]. Half-title. Small hole to centre of A4 affecting a couple of words, paper flaw to Q4 resulting in shorter fore-edge margin. Deep red morocco, spine heavily gilt with black morocco label, ornate gilt border to boards, edges dark blue, marbled endpapers. A bit rubbed, joints and endcaps neatly repaired, corners worn, upper hinge repaired, but very good overall. Armorial bookplate of William Scott Kerr of Chatto to front paste-down, and gift inscription to blank endpaper: 'To William Kerr, from his friend James Hope, Edinb. 25th Oct 1823'. The luxurious 'large-paper' quarto imposition - using the same setting of text as the octavo, and therefore capaciously-margined - of the fourth Foulis edition of Horace, following on from the 1744 'Immaculate' edition and reprints of 1750 and 1756 (the latter a medal-winning printing). The process of rearranging the frames has not gone entirely smoothly, with pages 20 (C2v) and 24 (C4v) swapped. Gaskell 383; ESTC T46249. Ref: 54180show full image..
[Horace] Horatius Flaccus, Quintus: (Bentley, Richard, ed.:) [Opera] ex recensione et cum notis atque emendationibus Richardi Bentleii. Editio tertia. Amstelaedami [Amsterdam]: apud Rod. & Jacob. Wenstenios & Guil. Smith, 1728. 2 vols. in 1. 4to., pp. [xxiv], 356, [ii], 357-717, [i], 239, [i] + additional engraved title page. Title in red and black with engraved vignette, large engraved headpiece to first page of Dedication. Occasional smudgy marks, a little light dampstaining near gutter, a few leaves lightly toned. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt with label, gilt frame and border, central gilt coat of arms of Dokkum. Spine a bit creased, joints rubbed, endcaps and corners slightly worn, still very good overall. The third full Bentley edition (an abridged third edition in 8vo. was produced in Cambridge, 1713), this is an almost exact reprint of the second (Amsterdam, 1713). The two Amsterdam editions are distinguished by having Bentley's editorial notes on the same page as the text, making them more useful to the scholar, and Dibdin and Brunet on this account preferred them to the Cambridge first. "Rash and tasteless in many of its conjectures, marvellously acute in some others (Bentley's Horace is) a signal proof of (his) learning, his ingenuity and his argumentative power" (R.C. Jebb in DNB). Bentley was thought for a long time the first Classical editor of the modern age. He was celebrated and reviled by his contemporaries, and the scholar Alexander Cunningham produced a whole edition of Horace specifically against Bentley's in 1721. Brunet III 818-819; Dibdin (4th edn.) II 101-105; Schweiger II 408; Spoelder 4. Ref: 54317show full image..
[Horace] Horatius Flaccus, Quintus: (Bentley, Richard, ed.:) [Opera] ex recensione & cum notis atque emendationibus Richardi Bentleii. Editio altera. Amstelaedami [Amsterdam]: Apud Rod. & Gerh. Wetstenios Hff. 1713. 4to., pp. [xxiv] 717, [i], 239, [i], including engraved additional title-page and divisional title for 'Pars altera' after p.442. Emendata after p.717 (i.e. 4Y1 verso). Index at rear. Title page in red and black with engraved device, woodcut initials. Gatherings 3M-3O and 3V-3X very toned, occasional light toning otherwise, a few tiny scorchmarks. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt with red morocco label, gilt borders, lovely blue paste-patterned edges, very good. With letterpress and manuscript school-prize (to J.J. van Hees, dated 1822) bound at the front. The second edition of Bentley's (in)famous edition of Horace, first printed at Cambridge in 1711, notable for his rash but inspired conjectures and emendations. "The Amsterdam editions of 1713 and 1728 are preferable to the Cambridge one of 1711. The notes and text are in the same page, and they are accompanied by the index of Treter, corrected by Verburgius" (Dibdin 104). Dibdin (4th edn.) II 101; Schweiger II 406; Bijker Riedel A140; Lowndes 1113: "The best edition."; Graesse III 354 (note); Brunet III 319 (note). Ref: 54397show full image..
Johnston, Robert: Historia rerum Britannicarum: Ut et multarum Gallicarum, Belgicarum, & Germanicarum, tam Politicarum, quam Ecclesiasticarum, ab anno 1572, ad Annum 1628 [...] Adjectus est rerum ac Personarum, de quibus in hoc volumine, Index absolutissimus. Amstelaedami [Amsterdam]: sumptibus Joannis Ravesteynii [colophon:Goudae [Gouda], typis Guilielmi va 1655. First edition. Folio, fols. [ii] 737 [xi]. Text in Latin. Printer's vignette to title-page, woodcut initials and head- and end-pieces. Ink spot to bottom edge encoaching very slightly onto bottom margin. Very light toning to edges, 2P4 with paper flaw causing ragged fore-edge, a few other very minor paper flaws. 18th-century vellum, title inked to spine in an old hand and partially obscured by a recent brown and gilt title label, edges sprinkled dark blue, an old catalogue entry pasted to ffep. Vellum a little darkened with some marks and scuffs, fore-edges worn with boards partly exposed, still very good overall. First complete edition, of Johnston's history of England and Scotland; parts of which had already been published in English. The work covers the period 1572-1628, during all of which time King James VI and I was reigning in Scotland or also England. Johnston (1567?-1639) was a member of the first class to graduate from the University of Edinburgh (M.A., 1587), and spent his working life as a clerk in London. "'A work of great merit, whether we consider the judicious structure of the narrative, the sagacity of the reflections, the acute discernment of characters, or the classical structure of the style' - Lord Woodhouselee" (Lowndes). Lowndes 1223: Ref: 54524show full image..
