HESIODUS. HÊSIODOU ASKRAIOU TA HEURISKOMENA. Hesiodi Ascraei quae extant. Ex recensione Johannis Georgii Graevii, cum ejusdem animadversionibus & notis. Accedunt notae ineditae Josephi Scaligeri et Francisci Guieti. (Bound with:) Johannis Georgii Graevii Lectiones Hesiodeae, ut & notae Josephi Scaligeri et Franscisci Guieti. Amsterdam (Amstelodami), Apud Danielem Elzevirium, 1667. 8vo. 2 volumes in 1: (XXXII),163,(9 fragmenta); (IV),183,8 (7 index & 1 errata),(1 blank) p. Vellum 16 cm (Ref: STCN 850625599; Neue Pauly, Supplement 2, p. 282: Hesiodus EF 10; Willems 1378; Berghman 830; Rahir 1439; Brunet 3,141; Graesse 3,263; Ebert 9603; Dibdin 2,34/35; Moss 1,470) (Details: Greek text and Latin translation. Boards with blind fillet border. First title printed in red and black. Woodcut printer's mark of Louis and Daniel Elzevier on both titles, both showing different versions of the Minerva type; they depict Minerva under an olive tree, she holds a banner with the motto: 'Ne extra oleas', to be understood as 'Stay within the bounds of wisdom') (Condition: Vellum slightly worn. Boards slightly curved. Old ownership entry on the front flyleaf and on the title. 2 gatherings loosening. A few old ink inscriptions in the margins. Small inkstains on 1 p. A small and faint waterstain in the lower corner of the beginning. Small wormhole in the upper margins of the second half, nimbling only at the head of a few letters) (Note: Hesiodus from Askra, a small town in Boiotia, born ca. 775 BC, is one of Greek's oldest poets. His poems are in Homeric hexameters and show his interest in ethics and systematization. His work was known throughout antiquity to rhapsodes, scholars and schoolboys. The Byzantines compiled scholia from ancient commentaries for eludication. The Renaissance didnot quite appreciate him. Until 1667 ca. 18 editions of his 'opera omnia' were published, not much. Hesiod's reception chiefly concerns myths and the motifs that he provides, and these motifs certainly appealed to mythographers, historians of religion, poets and painters. 'Hesiodic details of myth saturate European epic and mythopoeic writings, perhaps most spectacular in Dante, Milton, Blake (...) who make much of Hesiod's infernal regions, his Titans and primordial monsters, his giant battles'. (The Classical Tradition, N.Y, 2010, p. 435) Of Hesiod survives his 'Theogonia' or 'Theogony', which 'deals with the origin and genealogy of the gods (...) and the events that led to the kingship of Zeus: the castration of Uranos by Kronos and the overthrow of Kronos and the Titans by the Olympians'. (OCD, 2nd ed., p. 510) The 'Works and Days' or 'Erga kai Hêmerai' of Hesiod, which was always most read, has been called a 'gospel of labour'. The poet recommends the hard and honest life of a farmer. He 'inveighs against dishonesty and idleness by turns, using myth (...) parable, allegory and threats of divine anger. (...) The poem as a whole is a unique source for social conditions in early archaic Greece.' (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 511) The third poem that has survived is the 'Shield', or 'Aspis', a short narrative poem on Heracles' fight with Cycnus, a bloodthirsty son of the god Ares. It derives its name from the long description of Heracles' shield. 'Artists have never abandoned a fascination with Hesiod on the Muses. In the 19th century the artist Gustave Moreau created many visual representations of their initiation of the poet. Both Rubens and Goya painted famous and harrowing pictures of Kronos (Saturn) devouring one of his children, a motif from the Theogony; William Blake engraved a series after drawings by his friend John Flaxman (...). Georges Braque chose the 'Theogony' as the subject of 20 etchings'. (The Classical Tradition, N.Y., 2010, p. 436) § This edition of Hesiod was produced by the Dutch classical scholar of German descent Johann Georg Greffe, or Graeve, better known as Graevius, 1632-1703, professor of Latin at the Univerisity of Utrecht during the last forty years of his life. The Hesiod was almost his only edition of a Greek classic. Graevius limited his attention mainly to writers of Latin prose, and primarily to Cicero. He is best known for his huge 12 volume 'Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum'. Graevius tells in the preface of this Hesiod edition that he corrected the text of the 'Works and Days' with the help of two manuscript owned by Isaac Vossius. One them contained commentary of Tzetzes. From the French scholar Emericus Bigotius he received, Graevius tells, annotations of J. Scaliger and Franciscus Guietus. Dibdin echoes this preface, 'Graevius has here presented us with an original edition; and partly by the help of Mss. and a careful examination of ancient editions, and partly by his own critical acumen, has rectified the text, and supplied some of the deficiences'. The first volume contains the revised text and corrected Latin translation. The second Graevius' own annotations and the observations of Scaliger and Guietus) (Provenance: On the title has been written in small type: 'Johannes Grimm me suis annumerat Anno MDCLXXXI, die 21 Aprilis'. § On the front flyleaf: 'ex libris F.J. Brevet a.d. 1914'. The jurist Frederik Jacobus Brevet, 1893-1983, was a businessman and a man of letters. In 1958 he published a translation of 16 odes and an epode of Horace. In 1966 followed a more varied collection, 'Mozaïek', which contained, besides more translations of Horace, also Catullus, a number of poems from the 'Carmina Burana' and from the Greek poet Meleager, and poetry of his own. In 1978 appeared a translation of all 103 odes of Horace. From 1952 till the end his life he contributed many articles on classical culture to the periodical Hermeneus of the Dutch Classical Society (NKV). On the blank verso of the last leaf an old inscription: 'Hic est liber condiscipuli mei suavissimi', not followed by a name) (Collation: *-2*8; A-L8; A-M8) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 152349 Euro 350.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Dichtkunst, Dutch imprints, Greek literature, Greek text, Griechische Literatur, Hesiod, Hesiodus, Latin translation, Poesie, antike altertum antiquity, poetry