TERENTIUS. P. Terentii Comoediae sex elegantissimae, cum Donati commentariis ex optimorum praesertim veterum exemplariorum collatione emendatae, atque scholiis exactissimis, a multis doctis viris illustratae, & nunc denuo a omnibus mendis purgatae. Basel (Basileae), Apud Nicolaum Brylingerum, 1561. 8vo. (XXVI),643,(1 blank) p. Pigskin binding, over wooden boards and dated 1565. 17.5 cm (Ref: VD16 T 456; cf. Schweiger 2,1059; cf. Renouard, Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne, p. 43, no. 15; cf. Dibdin 2,470 for the Stephanus ed. of 1536) (Details: Contemporary blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards, dated 1565. Back with 3 raised bands, and its 4 compartments have blindstamped floral motives. The boards decorated with a triple blind-rolled frame; the outer frame comprising human figures, alternating with acanthus leaves; the central compartment of the upper board shows the female figure of Justice, who holds a sword and a pair of scales, below her 3 lines of worn away and unreadable text; in a compartment above Justice is blindstamped 'N.O', below Justice the year of the binding '1565'. In the center of the lower board Lucretia, who plunges the dagger into her breast; beneath her 3 lines dog latin: 'Castatvlitmagnafor/ maelvcrelavdeactat/ magestvvlneclarasv'; This might be something like: 'Casta tulit magna(m) form/ ae Lucre(tia) laude(m), actat/ magest (magis est?) vulne (= vulnera?) clara su(a?)'. Brass clasps on pigskin hinges. Woodcut printer's mark on the title, depicting 3 panting lions, one holds a hourglass; they are waiting for the sands of time to trickle through the glass. Woodcut initials) (Condition: Pigskin soiled and spotted. Some wear to the extremes. Front pastdown gone. 3 ownership entries on the front flyleaf, ownership entry on the title. Edges of the first leaves thumbed. Right edge of the first 20 leaves stained. Pastdown of the lower board loose) (Note: Late in life the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536, published his edition of the plays of Roman playwright Terentius, who lived in the first half of the second century B.C. It was printed in Basel in 1532 on the presses of Froben. It immediately became the standard edition. The French scholar/printer Robert Estienne (Robertus Stephanus), 1503-1559, immediately saw the importance of the edition of Erasmus and, according to Schweiger, adopted the best part of the edition of 1532 for a new edition which he brought on the market in 1536. Stephanus added also the scholia on Terentius of the 4th century grammarian Donatus, which he had already published previously in 1529. We compared the 1536 edition of Stephanus with our Brylinger edition of 1561, and must conclude that this 1561 edition is a word for word reissue, from beginning to end (including the preliminary pages) of the Terentius edition of Robertus Stephanus. To complicate matters, the pirate edition of Brylinger of 1561 itself is a repetition of an edition which Brylinger had earlier published in 1543 (VD16 T 418). The layout and the typeface are the same. § Terentius remained from antiquity through the Middle Ages, and in later centuries an example of style, and a rich source for moral sentences. Erasmus seems to have learned the whole of Terentius by heart in his youth. He admired the author for his 'latinitas' and his civilized humor. His ideal as a humanist and pedagogue was the creation of better men with the help of the classics. He held the opinion, that schoolboys should read Terentius over and over again. Thus they could master a pure Latin style, and learn at the same time good morals. In his short 'praefatio' Erasmus says: 'Non ex alio scriptore melius discitur Romani sermonis puritas, nec est alius lectu iucundior aut puerorum ingeniis accomodatior' (page *3 recto) (Provenance: 'Eastern Europe, Jewish'. The first name on the front flyleaf is a small stamp: 'Ex libris Dr. O. Hönich'. We found on the internet one Dr. O. Hönich; Dr. Osias Hönich was a Jewish paediatrician living in Czernowitz, a city which till 1918 belonged to Austria, then till 1940 to Rumania, and from WW II to the Soviet Union, and now (since 1991) to the Ukraine (Tsjernivtsi). We cite an obituary of February 22, 1933 from Der Tag, a local newspaper (in German) of Czernowitz: 'Samstag, den 18. d. M., starb im Alter von 66 Jahren der Kinderarzt Dr. Osias Hönich, einer der geachtetsten und tüchtichsten Vertreter des Aerztestandes unserer Stadt. Abgesehen von seinen hervorragenden Eigenschaften als Arzt verfügte Dr. Hönich über ein bedeutendes Wissen und viel Verständnis auf künstlerischen und wissenschaftlichen Gebieten. Das Leichenbegängnis fand gestern nachmittags, vom Trauerhaus, Borobchiecigasse 3 aus, statt. Von seinen Sohen ist der eine Advokat in Czernowitz, der jüngere Maler in Paris'. The names of his sons are Felix Hönich, and Paul Konrad Hönich (Hoenich). The last one emigrated to Israel before WWII and became a succesfull painter. A photograph of Osias Höning, his wife Friederike and 2 of his kids can be found here: (www).geni.com/people/Dr-Osias-Hoschia-H%C3%B6nich-Henich/6000000007383326410. § The second name, in ink, is Polish: 'Jan. Rogawski, Kolom(gji?)', 1876'. § The third name: 'Josephi ..eislai Schind'; Schind might be a Jewis name, from Galicia and Bukovina, in German Buchenland, a region in Eastern Europe, half of which now belongs to Rumania and half to the Ukraine. § On the title in old ink: 'Residentiae Sambonenis Soc. Jesu', 1702. What and where this 'residentia' of the Jesuits was, is hard to say) (Collation: a-z8, A-T8 (Leaf T7 verso blank, minus blank leaf T8) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 120518 Euro 980.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Altertum, Altertumswissenschaft, Antike, Antiquity, Brylinger, Donatus, Erasmus, Komödie, Latin literature, Robert Estienne, Robertus Stephanus, Swiss imprints, Terentius, Terenz, classical philology, comedy, römische Literatur