BROUKHUSIUS,J. Jani Broukhusii Carmina. Utrecht (Trajecti ad Rhenum), Apud Franciscum Halma, Academ. Typogr. Ordinarium, 1684. 12mo. (VIII),95,(1 blank) p. Vellum 16 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 84001225X; Oberlé no. 325) (Details: 3 thongs laced through the joints. Woodcut flowery ornament on the title) (Condition: Vellum age-toned and slightly scratched. Small dent in the spine. Front pastedown detached. Small inscription on the front flyleaf, and on the title, where someone wrote below 'Carmina' the word 'Quaerendo'. Paper slightly yellowing, some spots in the first leaves) (Note: This is the first edition of the neolatin poetry of the Dutch scholar/soldier Joan van Broekhuizen (Janus Broukhusius), 1649-1707, who during an adventurous life pursued his classical studies and poetry at leisure. His editions of Propertius (1702) and Tibullus (1707) laid the foundation for his reputation as a classical scholar. He was admired as a latinist, for his taste and for his erudition. (NNBW 4,309/12) As a neolatin poet he is known as the 'Propertius of Holland'. (Sandys 2,329) His poetry is learned and eccentric, combining polish and refinement. § The collection contains a number of poems Broukhusius wrote in 1674 as a marine officer under admiral Michiel de Ruyter during a campaign of the Dutch navy in American waters. Lying anchored at the island of Dominica he translated into Latin Psalm XLIV (p. 11/13), and wrote a sea song, 'Celadon', about homesickness for the motherland (p. 13/15). He returned home with the fleet and continued his soldiering in the Netherlands and in Germany, where he fought in several battles and sieges till the Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen of 1678. During the following stay of his regiment at Utrecht he continued his studies of Propertius. He there befriended Johann Georg Graevius, professor of rhetoric at the local University, to whom he dedicates 2 poems in this collection. At the recommandation of the Burgomaster of Amsterdam Johannes Hudde he was appointed captain of an infantery company at Amsterdam. There he contracted friendship with Petrus Francius, professor of rhetoric at the local 'Athenaeum Illustre', and a famous neolatin poet and orator. To him Broukhusius dedicates 6 poems in his book of poetry. To Hudde 2. He also wrote 2 poems, the first and the last in this collection, for Ferdinand von Fürstenberg, Prince Bishop of Paderborn from 1661 to 1683. Broukhusius adopted in this collection also a number of erotic poems he wrote for some ladies, a Julia, Corinna and especially Delia, a Dutch woman of great beauty. He dedicates 6 poems to this mistress. From the Renaissance onward there existed a fashion for imitating the erotic poetry of Propertius. Many humanist elegiac poets produced neolatin poems addressed to some alluring girl, as Propertius had done for his Cynthia. Propertius influenced before Broukhusius among others the Dutch erotic poet Janus Secundus and the English poet John Donne, and later the German author Goethe and the American poet Ezra Pound) (Collation: *4, A-D12 (leaf D12 verso blank)) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 155574 Euro 400.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Broukhusius, Dutch imprints, Neolatin, Neolatin poetry, Neulatein, Neulateinische Dichtkunst, Properce, Propertius, Properz, antike altertum antiquity, elegiae