POEMATA PYTHAGORAE, & PHOCYLIDIS. Poemata Pythagorae, & Phocylidis. Cum duplici interpretatione Viti Amerbachii. (Bound with:) Theognidis Megarensis Sententiae, cum versione latina, ita ut verbum verbo conferri possit, addita earundem explicatione, a Philip. Melanth. in Schola Wuiteberggensi. (And:) Sibyllinorum Oraculorum libri VIII. Addita Sebastiani Castalionis interpretatione Latina quae Graeco eregione respondeat. Cum annotationib. Xysti Betuleij in Graeca Sibyllina oracula, et Sebastiani Castalionis in translationem suamque annotationes numeris marginalibus signantur. Ad 1: Strasbourg (Argentorati), Apud Christianum Mylium, 1565. Ad 2: Leipzig (Lipsiae), Ioannes Rhamba excudebat, 1569. Ad 3: Basel (Basileae), Per Ioannem Oporinum, n.d. (Colophon at the end: 'Basileae, Ex officina Ioannis Oporini, Anno Salutis humanae 1555, Mense Augusto) 8vo. 3 volumes in 1: Ad 1: 163,(4),(1 blank) p. Ad. 2: (95,(1 blank)) p. Ad 3: 333,(2),(1 blank) p. Vellum 17 cm (Ref: Ad 1: VD16 P 5452; Hoffmann 3,330 (not this year 1565); Schweiger 1,282 (also not this year). Graesse 5,516. Ad 2: VD 16 ZV 19766; Hoffmann 3,510; Schweiger 1,316. Ad 3: VD16 S 6278; Griechischer Geist aus Basler Presse 462, but see also 460 and 461; Hoffmann 3,396; Schweiger 1,287: 'Enth. Verbess. aus e. Mscr. des Marcus Antimachus zu Florenz. Andere Varr., welche nicht in den Text aufgenommen sind, stehen am Rande'. Brunet 5,370; Ebert 21169; Graesse 6/1,398) (Details: Three rare texts in an unattractive binding. Ad 1: Printer's mark on the title, depicting a furious swan within a laurel wreath. Ad 2: Woodcut round portrait of Melanchthon on the title. Ad 3: Greek text with opposing Latin translation; woodcut initials) (Condition: Vellum dyed red, soiled and very worn; endpapers gone. This was a convolute consisting of 4 volumes. One of them was once removed, leaving an open space exposing the 3 broad bands of an ancient manuscript to which the book has been sewn. First title soiled, and with an old manuscript note in the blank margin; its right edge of the first leaves thumbed. Occasional old ink underlinings and marginalia of the hands of 2 or 3 'adolescentes studiosi'. On the last page in old ink the first 10 lines of a poem of the Hungarian humanist Janus Pannonius, 1434-1472, known all over Europe, 'De paparum creandorum ritu immutato', in which he ridiculed the pope) (Note: Ad 1 & 2: The 'gnome' or 'sententia', the pithy expression of a general thought, is probably as old as human speech. In literature it is allready found in Homer, e.g. the much quoted proverb 'A multitude of masters is no good thing; let there be one master'. (Ilias, II,204) Early Greek poets, among whom Theognis and Phocylides, are supposed to have summarized the ethic doctrines in short 'gnomai', sayings which according to Aristotle are more credible than certain long argumentations. Famous Greek expressions of a striking thought everyone knows are 'gnôthi seauthon' and 'mêden agan'. The 'gnome' was used occasionally in poetry or prose, but as a literary form it can be traced back to the Greek poets Phocylides and Theognis. Phocylides of Milete wrote hexametric and elegiac 'gnômai'. According to Suda he lived ca. 540 B.C. The 200 or so hexameters of his 'Poema nouthêtikon, or 'poema admonitorium' were ascribed to Phocylides in the 16th century. It was first published under his name in 1495. In the 16th century this didactic ethical poem was a very popular schoolbook, as it had been on Byzantine schools for centuries. This edition was probably also meant for young students or schoolboys, it should be studied carefully by 'adolescentes studiosi'. A great number of editions, almost one every year, translations and commentaries were produced by schoolmasters in the 16th century. 'Die Richtung der Zeit ging recht ernstlich dahin, die Jugenderziehung auf eine Vereinigung biblischer Glaubens- und Sittenlehre mit klassischer Reinheit der Form zu gründen' (J. Bernays, Ueber das Phokylideische Gedicht', in 'Jahresbericht des jüdisch-theologischen Seminars', Breslau 1856, p. I) The 'poema admonitorium' then ascribed to Phocylides, was often combined with Theognis, whose work was already a schoolbook in antiquity. Was Theognis purely pagan, the reading of Phocylides was more in line with biblical ethics. The christian ethics found in the work of a noble pagan poet who lived in the 6th century before Christ proved the correctness of the bible, it was thought. The German classical philologist Friedrich Sylburg, 1536-1596, was the first to doubt the attribution of the 'poema admonitorium' to Phocylides. And in 1606 the French genius Joseph Scaliger proved on stylistic grounds, and with respect to the content that the real author was perhaps a Christian. After this the interest in the poem waned, and finally it sank into oblivion. Nowadays the author is called 'Pseudo-Phocylides'. Of the Greek elegiac poet Theognis, also flourishing ca. 540 B.C., survive 1389 lines. As with Phocylides there is dispute about their authenticity. 'We may conjecture that it was popular, if not composed, in aristocratic circles in Athens in the 5th century', C.M Bowra concludes for part of the work of Theognis. (OCD s.v. Theognis) Theognis' songs were probably sung at symposia during the 5th and 4th century B.C. In this time the anthology of verses was formed, which has come down to us. The Greek text of Theognis and its accompanying metrical Latin translation in distichs was produced by the German classical scholar and reformer Philippus Melanchthon, 1497-1560, also known as the intellectual leader of Lutheranism. At the age of 21 he became professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg. This convolute contains also the Golden verses (carmen aureum or carmina aurea) which are attributed to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras. They were well known among educated readers in Antiquity. In the Renaissance the verses found, like Phocylides and Theognis, a place in schoolbooks. Nowadays the verses are relativily unknown among classicists. The 'carmen aureum' consists of 71 didactic hexameters. Every scholar who looked at these verses seems to have his own opinion about its author, origin and date. (Quot homines, tot sententiae) It is however clear 'from the testimonia that the Golden Verses was highly regarded in late antiquity as a concise formulation of principles of the philosophical life. The Neoplatonists, starting with Iamblichus, probably all used the poem as a propaedeutic moral instruction preparing the way for philosophy proper'. ('The Pythagorean Golden Verses'. With introduction and commentary by J.C. Thom, Leiden, 1995, p. 13) The testimonia indicate also that the authorship of the poem was already problematical in antiquity. (p. 15) The editor and translator of the Golden Verses and Phocylides is the German humanist Veit Amerbach, or in Latin Vitus Amerbachius, 1503-1557, who was first a Lutheran, but later converted to catholocism. He studied in Wittenberg, where he met Luther and Melanchthon. Later he turned against his former friends. Ad 3: Interest in the oracles of the Sibyl was at its height in the sixteenth century. Before 1600 messages of this prophetess were 'widely diffused and her fame led to depiction by noted artists, such as Van Eyk, Perugino, Pinturichio, Michelangelo, and Raphael, and even to musical settings of her verses'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass., 2010, p. 884) The first female seer known as Sibyl appeared in the 6th century B.C. in connection with Erythrae, a Greek city in Asia Minor. In the first century B.C. the Roman scholar Varro listed already 10 different Sibyls. The collection of Greek prophecies of the Sibyl of Cumae (Sibyllini libri, the Sibylline books) had an official place in Roman religion, and were meant to guide the Romans through political and natural crises. In 83 B.C. the collection was destroyed by a fire in the temple of Iuppiter on the Capitolium. A new collection of ficticious oracles under the prestigious name of the Sibyls, was formed in late antiquity. 'The Sibylline books that became important in the later Western tradition were the product of Jews and Christians who seized on this form of revalatory literature for their own purposes'. (The Classical Tradition, p. 884) These Greek hexameters proclaimed the superiority first of Judaism, and then of Christianity. The verses criticized pagan gods and pagan immorality, and predicted their impending doom. Christians of the East and the West used the oracles as evidence that God had employed pagan female seers to announce the coming of Christ. The Sibylline oracles were widely used by many church fathers, Augustinus accepted even the Sibyl as a member of the 'City of God', because of the acrostic poem that hymned Christ's return. In the late Middle Ages new Sibylline prophecies were produced to promote forms of apocalypticism. The 16th century editors of the oracles were convinced of their religious worth and their authenticity. Italian humanists and platonists considered the oracles to belong to the 'prisca theologia'. 'But the 1599 Paris edition of Joseph Koch expressed doubts about the antiquity and authority of the verses'. A 'battle of books' ensued in the 17th century as classical scholars, such as Isaac Casaubon and Richard Simon mounted arguments against the authenticity of the oracles'. Nowadays they are 'studied for what they tell us about Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds'. (The Classical Tradition, p. 885) This is the third and most complete edition of the Oracula Sibyllina which the Basler publisher Johannes Oporinus produced. The first one of 1545, the 'editio princeps' of these prophecies, contains the Greek text only. The second of 1546 offers a Latin translation only, and the third of 1555 combines the Greek text and Latin translation. The Augsburger poet, classical scholar and 'Schulrektor' Sixt Birk, or in Latin Xystus Betuleius, 1501-1554 is the editor of the 'editio princeps', ca. 4200 Greek hexameters in 8 books, which he had found in a manuscript that the government of Augsburg had recently acquired in Venice. The manuscript, he says, 'recens est: eleganter quidem, & splendide, sed (...) parum orthographice scriptus'. (p. 16/17 of the prefatory letter) The verse collection consists of ancient pagan, jewish and christian prophecies. In his introductory letter of 1545, which is reprinted in the 1555 edition, Betuleius declares that he used the manuscript to elucidate many references to the oracles of the Sibyls in the 'De Divina Institutione' of Lactancius. He is convinced of the christian nature of the oracles, in which the will of God has found an expression. 'Misit benignissimus Deus (...) suae voluntatis interpretes'. (p. 8) Betuleius honestly declares that he lacks the time and the erudition to produce a commentary and a translation into Latin. 'Non dubito quin futuri sint, qui his vaticiniis, licet multis in locis truncatis & mutilis, vel interpretatione, vel enarratione sint lumen aliquod illaturi'. (p. 8 ) The next year, 1546, saw already the hoped for Latin translation of this difficult text. It was produced by the French humanist scholar Sebastian Castellio, also known as Sebastianus Castalio, or in French as Sébastien de Châtillon, 1515-1563. He was rector of the school in Geneva, but had to leave the city because he was a defender of religious tolerance, and was accused of undermining the prestige of the calvinist clergy. Reduced to utter poverty he went to Basel in 1544 and began proof-reading for the publisher Oporinus, and producing Greek, Hebrew and Latin translations. This Latin translation (the second book on the oracles which Oporinus published) must have been among his first jobs for Oporinus. In 1551 Castellio published his Latin translation of the Bible. In Basel Castellio's fortunes improved and in 1553 he was appointed professor of Greek. In the dedication which precedes the translation of the oracles Castellio defends the authenticity and the divine nature of the Sibylline oracles. 'Haec igitur oracula Sibyllae' (...) vera sunt'. (p. 18) He used for his translation the original Greek manuscript which Betuleius had sent to Oporinus, and 2 other manuscripts. Castellio offers also variant readings contributed by the Italian scholar Marcantonio Antimaco, or in Latin Marcus Antonius Antimachus, 1473-1552, who was a prolific humanist translator of Greek texts, and who was the owner of one of the two manuscripts ('qui vetus habet exemplar', p. 17). Castellio's translation of the Sibylline Oracles is 'zwar metrisch, doch nicht weniger wörtlich als eine Prosaübersetzung. An einigen Stellen habe er den Text verbessern können, an andern Lücken belassen oder Teilübersetzungen in Prosa bieten müssen'. (Griechischer Geist aus Basler Presse no. 461) Castellio raises in his preface the problem that the Sibylline books may be forgeries, 'either relatively recent ones, of from the early Christian period. Both possibilities he denies, saying that it would have been too difficult for any recent forger, and that Ancient references to Sibyls as well as Virgil's 4th Eclogue argue against an earlier one. (...) At all events, the publication of these texts set in motion a slow but inexorable process of textual criticism which meant that by the 17th century scholars were prepared to say that Lactantius and even St. Augustine had been mistaken in believing these oracles to be of great antiquity'. (J. Britnell, 'The rise and fall of the Sibyls in Renaissance France' in 'Schooling and Society', edited by A.A. MacDonald & M.W. Twoney, Leuven, 2004, p. 179) Castellio added also his annotations to the text. The third Oporinus edition of the Sibylline oracles of 1555 was also edited by Castellio, and contains the introductions to the editions of 1545, 1546 and of 1555, the Greek text of Betuleius, corrected by Castellio, and his Latin translation, printed parallel to the Greek text. Castellio added his own notes and those of Betuleius. At the end we find the 'iudicia' of Eusebius and Augustine concerning the Acrostiches of Sibylla Erithraea; included is also the acrostichon of the Sibylla, 'IESUS CHRISTUS DEI FILIUS SERVATOR CRUCS' (p. 290/91), and other Sibyllan prophecies on Christ; Castellio added also a Latin verse translation of 5 1/2 pages of the so-called 'Carmen Mosis', a long prophetic poem, (Deuteronomium, chapter 32), which is said to have found a place in the Ark of the Convenant. Castellio erroneously refers to this 'Song of Moses' as 'Exodus, chapter 32'. (p. 328)) (Collation: Ad 1: A-K8, L4 (leaf L4 verso blank) Ad 2: A-F8 (leaf F8 verso blank). Ad 3: a-x8 (leaf x8 verso blank) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 151943 Euro 2500.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Greek literature, Greek philosophy, Griechische Literatur, Orakel, Phocylides, Phokylides, Pythagoras, Pythagorism, Pythagorismus, Sentenzen, Sibylla, Theognis, antike altertum antiquity, griechische Philosophie, oracles, oracula sibyllina, sententiae