EURIPIDES. Euripides poeta, Tragicorum princeps, in Latinum sermonem conversus, adiecto e regione textu Graeco: cum annotationibus et praefationibus in omnes eius Tragoedias, autore Gasparo Stiblino. Accesserunt, Iacobi Micylli, De Euripidis vita, ex diversis autoribus collecta; item De Tragoedia & eius partibus 'prolegomena' quaedam. Item Ioannis Brodaei Turonensis Annotationes doctiss. nunquam antea in lucem editae. Ad haec, rerum & verborum toto opere praecipue memorabilium copiosus index. Cum Caes. Maiest. & Christianiss. Gallorum Regis gratia ac privilegio, ad decennium. Basel (Basileae), Per Ioannem Oporinum, (1562) (Colophon at the end: 'Basileae, Ex officina Ioannis Oporini, Anno salutis humanae 1562, mense Martio') Folio. p. 1-667; col. 668-679, (1 p.), col. 680-845; (23 index) p. Contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards. 34 cm This Euripides edition is the first to offer a Greek text accompanied by a (complete) translation into Latin. Autograph dedication by the editor on the title. (Ref: VD16 E 4217; Griechischer Geist aus Basler Pressen no. 200; Hoffmann 2,69; Schweiger 1,115; Dibdin 1,528; Moss 1,416; Brunet 2,1096; Ebert 7077; Graesse 2,519; USTC no. 654877) (Details: Signed binding, produced between 1562 and 1570 by Hans Rietzsch, and probably commissioned by Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Friedrich von Wirsberg, or his chancellor Balthasar ab Hellu. (See below for the binder and his client) Back with 4 raised bands. Boards decorated with 3 rows of blind-stamped rolls, the first one with floral motives, the second and third comprising portraits of apostles and other biblical figures, and floral motives; the portraits are accompanied by short texts which are reasonably legible, e.g. King David, playing his harp, he has the text: 'De fructu ventris tui'; this refers to Psalm 131,11, where God promisses David: 'iuravit Dominus David veritatem et non frustrabit eum de fructu ventris tui ponam super sedem suam'. Left and right of David's head the initials H and R. Another blind-stamped portrait depicts the apostle Paul, whose text is: 'Apparuit beningita(s)' (sic!), a quote from a letter of Paul to Titus. (Ep. Pauli ad Titum 3,4) The initials H.R. stand for 'Hans Rietzsch', a Würzburg bookbinder, of whom the University library of Würzburg holds a great number of bindings, which can be dated between 1555 and 1570. Rietzsch often used on 'his' boards rolls depicting King David, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul. (H. Endres, 'Die Zwickauer Buchbinder Hans Rietzsch und Gregor Schenck und ihre Beziehungen zu Würzburg', Archiv für Buchbinderei 26 (1926) p. 13-16) Woodcut printer's mark on the title of Oporinus, depicting Arion, who stands on the dolphin that saved him, he plays the violin. Woodcut initials. 1 woodcut text illustration. Text printed in 2 columns, Greek text with parallel Latin translation. Each play is concluded with a short 'praefatio' of Stiblinus, who added also short notes. The last 185 columns contain the commentary of Johannes Brodaeus) (Condition: Vellum age-toned, spotted, scratched, and worn at the extremes. Small piece gone at head of the spine. Leather of the lower corner of the backcover loosening and damaged. The lower clasp has been preserved, the upper one is partly gone. Small bookplate on the front pastedown. Ownership entry in ink on the same pastedown. Inscription on the blank lower margin of the title. The right edge of the title slightly thumbed. Paper sometimes yellowing) (Note: 'With Sophokles Greek tragedy reaches its culmination. Euripides, great poet though he was, represents the first symptom of the inevitable decline, for in him we can recognize a certain impatience with the form he found ready to his hand'. This is how Rose started his chapter on Greek tragedian Euripides, ca. 480-406 B.C., some 80 years ago. (H.J. Rose, 'A history of Greek literature', p. 177 in the 4th edition of 1965) That opinion has now been superseded. Euripides' play 'The Bacchae', which drew little attention before 1900, 'has come to seem one of the defining models of Greek tragedy and even of tragedy itself, rivalling Aeschylus' Oresteia and Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambridge Mass. 2010, p. 347) For this, Euripides has to thank the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The upsurge was caused by his 'Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik' (Leipzig 1872) in which he drew attention to the idea of 'the Dionysiac', a key element in the 'Bacchae'. This idea 'has had a massive influence, not only on understandings of tragedy, but on theories of theatrical performances itself'. (Idem, ibidem) Until the end of the 18th century especially Euripides' Medea, Alcestis, Trojan women and Hippolytus, with a powerful Phaedra, created the dominant image of Euripides. He was 'admired mainly for creating icons of female suffering'. In Andromaque (1667), Iphigénie (1674) Phèdre (1677), of the French playwright Racine we see the influence of Euripides. Alcestis, a model of self sacrifice, inspired Chaucer, Milton, Woodworth, Rilke, Browning, T.S. Elliot, Yourcenar. Comparable lists can be made for Medea and Phaedra. The play 'The Trojan women', a story of women in a great war, has throughout the 20th century 'frequently been staged in times of war across the globe from Moscow to Brazil and Germany to Japan'. (Idem, ibidem). § This Euripides edition of 1562 is the first to offer a Greek text accompanied by a (complete) translation into Latin. Earlier editions of Euripides had only the bare Greek text. It furthermore is the first Euripides edition to have textual notes. It appears from the dedication that the editor, the German humanist Gasparus Stiblinus (or Gaspar Stiblin, Caspar Stiblin, Kaspar Stiblin, Kaspar Stüblin), who was born in 1526 in the South German village Amtzell, saw more male suffering in Euripides' tragedies. The 'Dedicatio' concerns the emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564), who had supported his career. Stiblinus calls Euripides the best of the tragedians, and argues that his tragedies are an emperor worthy. He stresses that Euripides is excellent reading, especially for those in power and the wealthy, for the vicissitudes of fortune about which the tragedian writes, learn the rich and powerful to prepare for misfortune and to lead a virtuous life. The world of power and the republic of letters of the 16th century is however a men's world, so Stiblinus draws the attention of the emperor to the uncertain and often cruel fate of Polynices, Eteocles, Theseus, Amphitryon, Hercules, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, and the Cyclops. After the dedication follows a preface (ad lectorem), dated 1558, in which Stiblinus tells the reader that the Basel publisher Oporinus urged him to produce for his press a new translation for a envisaged Euripides edition. Stiblinus honestly admits that he made some use of the Latin translation of Dorotheus Camillus, which had been published in 1555 in Basel by the same Oporinus (expensis Ioannis Oporini). We may assume that Oporinus was not satisfied with the translation of Camillus, and asked Stiblinus to do a better job, for the translator boasts in the preface that his translation is more august, more reliable, and in smoother and more correct Latin. ('augustior, luculentior, et honesto ac Romano habitu commendatior'. (p. a4 verso) Stiblinus goes on to tell that while preparing the edition, the translation (which is more or less iambic) and the annotations, he was able to consult books from the library of the famous classical scholar Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547). He did so with permission of the government of Schlettstadt, nowadays Sélestat in the Alsace. (Rhenanus had bequeathed his invaluable collection of books to his hometown Schlettstadt, where it is still to be seen in the Humanist Library of Sélestat) Stiblinus furthermore divided, he writes, each play into 5 acts to make the reading easier. He added also at the beginning of each play, and of every act, a short 'argumentum', a kind of plot-summary, and notes. He continues with the acknowledgment of his debt to Johannes Hartung, his teacher in Freiburg (praeceptorem meum), who introduced him to Euripides. He thanks him for lending him his vast collection of notes on Euripides' tragedies and references to other authors. On page 630, at the beginning of the last play, the Electra, (a play that was first published only in 1545 in Rome) Stiblinus has added a second 'praefatio', now dated Freiburg I.Br. 1560, in which he tells the reader that he inserted into his commentary on the Electra many notes of Johannes Hartung, which he dictated to his students. Stiblinus' Latin translation of the Electra is the first to appear. This 1562 edition contains furthermore 2 short texts of Jacobus Micyllus (Molsheym) of Heidelberg, who died 1558, a biography of Euripides and a treatise on tragedy. Added is also a commentary to 11 plays produced by the French scholar Johannes Brodaeus (Brodeau) of Tours, of which the title states that it was never published before. It was however published previously in Paris in 1545. As a scholar and translator of Euripides however Stiblinus met the ill fate of an Euripidean character. In the same year 1562, Holzmann published in Frankfurt a translation in prose of Euripides by the famous German humanist Philipp Melanchthon, a translation which was far better. And the Dutch scholar Willem Canter, 1545-1572, published in 1571 a Greek text that made all earlier editions obsolete. Stiblinus' edition and translation were soon forgotten. 'L'Éuripide de Stiblin avait désormais fait naufrage pour toujours dans la mer grise des entreprises manquées'. (Firpo,L. 'Les Utopies à la Renaissance', Bruxelles, Paris 1963, p. 125/26) This article of Firpo is the beginning of the Euripidean 'renaissance' of Stiblinus. Until recently little was known of Stiblinus. ADB does not know him. Zedler and Jöcher only mention a few titles of him. In VD16 we harvested for Stiblinus 17 hits: 8 own productions, among which an edition of the letters of Phalaris, and 11 contributions to works of others. The oldest title dates from 1555. Johannes Oporinus published in that year Stiblinus' works 'Coropaedia, sive de moribus et uita Virginum sacrarum, libellus planè elegans, ac saluberrimis praeceptis refertus. Eiusdem Eudaemonensium Republica Commentariolus', of which the last one, the 'Eudaemonensium Republica' ('Happinesham', in German 'Seligland') would save him from oblivion. (See hereafter for this utopian treatise) In 1559 Stiblinus was called by the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Friedrich von Wirsberg, 1507-1573, to teach Greek at a newly founded 'Paedagogium Illustre'. The bishop, who wanted to revive Greek and Latin studies in his town, did so on the advice of his chancellor Balthasar ab Hellu. 'Désireux de reconstruire dans la capitale de la Franconie (Würzburg) un centre d'études, le prince-évêque Friedrich von Wrisbert (sic!) s'était adressé, peu de mois après son élection (1558), au juriste Balthazar von Hell (sic), alsacien de Haguenau, et sur son conseil appela durant l'été de 1559 'ad docendum bonas litteras ... honestis propositis praemiis' (...) notre Stiblin, pour l'enseignement du grec'. (L. Firpo, o.c. p. 126) After some delay, Stiblinus finally got his chair in Würzburg in spring 1561. His inaugural lecture, read before the bishop and other dignitaries, was on the Holy Spirit. (Firpo, p. 130). Stiblinus died shortly after his appointment, probably in 1562, in Würzburg, about 36 years old. (Idem, p. 132) § Stiblinus, who was of humble origin, matriculated at the University of Freiburg i.Br. on January 19th 1548. He became 'magister artium' and was immediately appointed professor of Latin in 1551 at a modest salary of 15 florins a year, 'salaire de famine' according to Firpo. (Idem, p. 110) In 1553 he fled from the Plague and went to Schlettstatt in the Alsace, where he was the next 6 years in charge of the famous humanist school, where he taught Latin, and had also time to browse and study in the library of Beatus Rhenanus. There he wrote in the summer of 1553, free from dull lecturing, (scholae molestias pertaesus) his 'De Eudaemonensium Republica Commentariolus', the description of a Happy City called Eudaemonia, the capital of the utopian island Macaria, situated somewhere in the Indian Ocean. It was published by Oporinus in Basle in 1555. This treatise makes Stiblinus the first German Utopist, and the first to create a fictional island society after Thomas More's, who published his Utopia in 1516. If Stiblinus knew More's Utopia is not sure. Interest in this forgotten 'Utopia' of Stiblinus was revived some 50 years ago by Luigi Firpo, who blew the dust from it in an article in 'Les Utopies à la Renaissance, Colloque International (avril 1961)'. Bruxelles Paris 1963, p. 117-134) His article placed Stiblinus in the current and ongoing Utopia discussion, and paved the way for the admittance of the humanist Stiblin in the cultural and literary history of Germany. (J.J. Berns in 'Literatur und Kultur im deutschen Südwesten zwischen Renaissance und Aufklärung', Amsterdam 1995, p. 153/154) Stiblinus has his own street in Amtzell, the village where he was born, the 'Kaspar-Stüblin-Weg'. (A good survey of this born again humanist in: 'Killy Literaturlexikon', Berlin/Boston, 2011, Vol. 11, p. 259/61) § The interest in Stiblinus as a classical scholar was revitalized by the American Euripides expert Donald Mastronarde in 2009, when he launched a blog 'Stiblinus Prefaces and Arguments on Euripides (1562)'. In it he argues that this 'rare edition is of considerable interest for the early scholarly reception of Euripides because it includes short prefaces and plot-summaries (Latin argumenta) for each play in addition to the Greek epitomes and prefatory material transmitted in the medieval manuscripts. In contrast, most other early printed editions of tragedy simply repeat the scholarly and pedagogical annotations from the manuscripts, if they do not simply confine themselves to the text of the plays themselves'. On this website Mastronarde offers Stiblinus prefaces and argumenta, accompanied by an English translation, 'so that they can be studied in connection with the reception of Euripides and tragedy in the 16th century'. (ucbclassics.dreamhosters.com/djm/stiblinus/stiblinusMain.html) (Provenance: 1. Autograph inscription of Gasparus Stiblinus on the title: 'Egregio et summae spei juveni D. Balthasari ab Hellu B.A.H. amico suo chariss.(imo) Gasparus Stiblinus D. D'. From this inscription we learn that Stiblinus donated this book to his good friend Balthasar ab Hellu. Does B.A.H. simply mean 'Balthasar Ab Hellu'? We assume that Stiblinus gave him the book to thank him for his chair in Würzburg. The name, 'Ab Hellu' or in Dutch 'Van Hellu' is found in the Dutch province of Gelderland, where Hellu was a centuries old Seigniory. No mention is made of Balthasar in ADB, nor in the Dutch equivalent NNBW. Balthasar ab Hellu was a descendant of empoverished Dutch nobility. His father emigrated to the Elzas, where he found refuge in Hagenau. Balthasar was born there in 1518. He studied law in Freiburg i.Br., where he matriculated as 'Balthasarius de Heller ex Haganoia" and in 1555 he participated as 'Syndikus und Stadtschreiber' of the city of Colmar in the important 'Reichtag' of Augsburg of 1555, where it was decided 'cuius regio, eius religio', i.e. that the subjects had to adopt the religion of their ruler. In Augsburg he probably met Prince-Bishop Melchior Zobel, who engaged him in 1556 as Chancellor. As Chancellor, which meant also Prime Minister, and diplomat he travelled a lot to promote the interest of the 'Landsberger Bund', a kind of defense organisation of several states in the South of Germany. His salary (Dinstgelt) was 300 florins. (Archiv des Historische Vereins Unterfranken und Aschaffenburg, Würzburg 1840, p. 55) 'Ab 1570 musste er allerdings mehrfach Termine absagen wegen Erkrankungen, so im Oktober 1573 wegen Rückenschmerzen. Wahrscheinlich begann er aber bereits da an einem Geschwür zu leiden, denn im Oktober 1574 bezeichnete das Domkapitel den noch nicht 60jährigen bereits als 'unvermüglich und alt' und beriet über seine Ablösung'. (K. Karrer, 'Johannes Posthius, (1537-1597): Verzeichnis der Briefe und Werke', Wiesbaden 1993, p. 153/154). Ab Hellu had an operation in 1575, but remained at his post till the day he died, January 9, 1577. On the internet we found the following scattered data concerning Balthasar ab Hellu, especially in volume V of the correspondence of Petrus Canisius. ('Beati Petri Canisii Societatis Iesu Epistolae et acta' , Volume V, Freiburg.Br., 1910, edited by O. Braunsberger) This volume contains Canisius' correspondence between 1565 and 1567. Canisius doesnot mention Balthasar by name, he refers to him in a few letters (letter 1259, 1290 & 1309) as the 'Cancellarius' or 'Cancellarius Herbipolensis' (= Würzburg) of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Friedrich von Wirsberg. From the letters and the commentary of Braunsberger, we collected the following: Balthasar was a jurist (iuris peritus), and a strong defender of the Catholic church against the protestants. In a letter of 15 november 1565 Canisius complains that the funding of the new Collegium of the Jesuits in Würzburg did not make any progress, because the bishop was too parcimon