MEURSIUS,J. Joannis Meursii De Regno Laconico libri II. De Piraeeo (Atheniensium portu celeberrimo, & ejusdem antiquitates) liber singularis, et in Helladii chrestomathiam animadversiones. Omnia nunc primum prodeunt. Utrecht (Ultrajecti), Apud Guiljelmum vande Water, 1686 - 1687. 4to. 2 parts in1: (II),108,(12 index);(VIII),51,(7 index) p. Vellum 20 cm (Ref: STCN p.p. 840525478) (Details: Lacking the third part, with the Greek text and Latin translation of the 'Chrestomathia' of Helladius Byzantinus, or Antinoupolitanus, with the notes of Meursius. 6 thongs laced through the joints. 2 title pages, both with a woodcut engraving of a fruit basket on it) (Condition: Vellum somewhat soiled. Pinpoint hole in the front joint. Lacking the third part: 'In Helladii chrestomathiam animadversiones'. The titles of the second (Piraeus) and first part (De Regno Laconico) have been switched by the binder. To confuse matters even more, the dedicatio, which belongs to the first part has erroneously been bound in the second part) (Note: The Dutch classicist and historian Johannes Meursius (Johannes van Meurs), 1579-1639, was professor of History and Greek in the university of Leiden from 1610 till 1620. He studied under the genius J.J. Scaliger, and is best known for the 'editiones principes' of a number of Byzantine authors that he produced, and the 'editio princeps' of the 'Elementa Harmonica' of Aristoxenus (1616). He edited also the 'Timaeus' of Plato with the commentary and translation of Chalcidius (1617). Meursius' indefatigable labours concerned also the history of ancient Greece, and especially Eleusis, and the antiquities of Athens and Attica, and of Sparta. His work was widely used as source by later ancient historians. Nothing that related to the history of Athens he left untouched, law, government, festivals, institutions, manners, literature, religion etc. The dazzling variety of titles of part of his pioneering work seems almost to exhaust the subject 'ancient Athens': De populis Atticae (1616), Atticarum lectionum libri VI (1617), Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. Sive de tragoediis eorum (1619), Panathenaea. Sive de Minervae illo gemino festo (1619), Eleusinia. Sive, de Cereris Eleusinae sacro, ac festo (1619), Fortuna Attica. Sive, de Athenarum origine (1622), Archontes Athenienses. Sive, de ijs, qui Athenis summum istum magistratum obierunt (1622), Cecropia. Sive de Athenarum arce, & ejusdem antiquitatibus (1622), De ludis Graecorum (1622), Pisistratus. Sive, de ejus vita, & tyrannide (1623), Athenae Atticae. Sive, de praecipuis Athenarum antiquitatibus (1624), Areopagus. Sive, de senatu areopagitico (1624), Regnum Atticum. Sive, de regibus Atheniensium (1633), Reliqua Attica; sive, ad librum De populis Atticae, paralipomena (1684), Theseus, sive de ejus vita rebusque gestis (1684), Themis Attica sive De legibus Atticis (1685), Piraeus (1687). Meursius produced also 2 titles on the ancient Greek city-state Sparta on the Peloponnese, in antiquity known as 'Lakedaimôn'. Sparta, long time the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, lead during the first half of the 5th century the allied Greek forces in the Greco-Persian Wars. Sparta then became the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Meursius' first work was published in 1661, 'Miscellanea Laconica, sive Variarum antiquitatum Laconicarum libri IV'. In 1687 followed this 'De Regno Laconico libri II'. Meursius' work was widely used as source by later ancient historians, and they laid the foundations of much later learning. Meursius work was incorporated in Jacobus Gronovius' 'Thesaurus Graecarum antiquitatum', Lugduni Batavorum 1697-1702) (Collation: pi1 (= leaf Q1), A-P4, *4, Q4 (minus leaf Q1, see first leaf -pi1), R-X4, Y5) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 130328 Euro 250.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Altertum, Altertumswissenschaft, Altphilologie, Antike, Antiquity, Athen, Athens, Dutch imprints, Greek history, Piraeus, Sparta. Spartans, Spartaner, ancient history, classical archaeology, classical art, classical philology, griechische Geschichte, klassische Archäologie, klassische Kunst