PORPHYRIUS. PORPHURIOU PERI TOU EN TÊi ODUSSEIAi TÔN NUMPHÔN ANTROU. Porphyrius, De antro Nympharum. Graece cum Latina L. Holstenii versione. Graeca ad fidem editionum restituit, versionem C. Gesneri, & animadversiones suas adjecit R.M. van Goens Trajectinus. Praemissa est Dissertatio Homerica ad Porphyrium. (Bound with:) PORPHURIOU PHILOSOPHOU PERI APOCHÊS EMPSUCHÔN BIBLIA TESSARA. Porphyrii Philosophi De abstinentia ab esu animalium libri quatuor. Cum notis integris Petri Victorii et Ioannis Valentini, et interpretatione Latina Ioannis Bernardi Feliciani. Editionem curavit & suas itemque Ioannis Iacobi Reiskii notas adiecit Iacobus De Rhoer. Accedunt IV. Epistolae de Apostasia Porphyrii. Ad 1: Utrecht, (Traiecti ad Rhenum), Sumptibus Abrahami v. Paddenburg, 1765. Ad 2: Utrecht, (Traiecti ad Rhenum), Apud Abrahamum a Paddenburg, 1767. ((colophon: Daventriae e typ. J. de Lange) 2 volumes in 1: 4to. XXXIV,XXXVI,(2),122,(8 index); (XXXIV),398,(14 index) p. Contemporary half calf. 26 cm (Ref: Ad 1: STCN ppn 203268296; Hoffmann 3,284; Schweiger 1,274; Brunet 4,823/24; Ebert 17795; Graesse 5,415. Ad 2: STCN ppn 203266617; Hoffmann 3,284; Schweiger 1,274; Brunet 4,823/24; Ebert 17791; Graesse 5,415) (Details: Back gilt and with 5 raised bands. Red morocco shield in the second compartment. Title and the first leaf of the preliminaries, leaf chi1, and also L2 printed in red and black. A small text engraving on page 117. The second title is also printed in red and black) (Condition: Binding slightly worn. Corners bumped) (Note: Ad 1: The author of this treatise on the Odyssean Cave of the Nymphs is the Greek scholar and philosopher Porphyrius (Porphyry), 232/3 - ca. 305 A.D., who was more a polymath than an original thinker. In his numerous treatises and commentaries he had the good habit of quoting his sources by name. He thus preserved many fragments of older learning. (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 864/65) Porphyrius was a student of Plotinus, whose Enneads he edited somewhere after 300. Most of his work is written from a Plotinian point of view. He produced also numerous philosophical commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus and Plotinus. His commentary on the Categories of Aristotle became a standard medieval textbook of logic. His philologic work include 'De antro Nympharum', a specimen of allegorizing interpretation, in which Porphyrius symbolically explains the passages in the 13th book of Homer's Odyssey on the Cave of the Nymphs. In this cave, situated on the island of Ithaca, Odysseus hid the treasures of the Phaeacians on his return home. (Od. XIII, 102-112, 361-365) § The edition of 1765 opens, after a dedication to young prince William V, with a 'Dissertatio Homerica ad Porphyrium' by the Dutch classical scholar Rijklof Michaël van Goens, 1748-1810. The Greek text, which follows, is accompanied by 2 Latin translations. The first one, by the German philologist Lucas Holstein, or Holstenius, 1596-1642, is printed parallel to the Greek text. It was first published in 1630 in Rome, where he was librarian of the Vatican. At the end of the Greek text comes the second translation, made by the Swiss classical scholar Conrad Gesner, 1516-1565, which was first published in Zürich in 1542. After that translation follow the 'Collectanea ad Porphyrium De antro Nympharum' in which the editor Van Goens offers the Homeric text with the relevant scholia and commentaries and observations of Eustathius, Johannes Spondanus, Joshua Barnes, Madame Dacier, Alexander Pope, and among others Willem Canter, who declared that the complete Odyssey was an allegory of man searching for wisdom and happiness, which he only could reach through death, for Odysseus' sleep on board of the Phaeacian ship that brought him home must be understood as a stay in death. (p. 81) At the end we find 38 pages filled with observations and commentary by Van Goens himself. § Van Goens was a precocious polymath. He matriculated at the age of 12, and only 18 years old he succeeded his professor at the University of Utrecht, Peter Wesseling. He had to quit his chair in 1776 because he had made himself impossible. He went into Utrecht politics, made more enemies, and left his country disappointed in 1786. One of his principle philological works is this edition of Porphyrius. He does not agree with the allegorical explanations of Porphyrius, which he calls 'nugae'. Such trifles only made the Odyssean passage incomprehensible, instead of clear. Van Goens wants instead to shed light on the beauty of Homer's description of the cave. (Praefatio p. (XXII)) His aim is not textcritical, but more philosophical (Epistola p. IV). § Porphyrius explains the cave of the Nymphes and her double entrance as a profound allegory of the journey of the soul on it ways to and from its origin. (p. 23) The cave symbolises the material world into which the human soul has descended. The darkness in it stands for the unseen powers of the material world. Porphyrius discusses the famous cavern of Plato, refers to Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Mozes, Zoroaster, Stoics, and the Egyptians, and construes with bold imagination and wondrous combinations an allegoric explanation. In his 'Animadversiones ad Porphyrium de Antro Nympharum' (p. 85-122) Van Goens investigates, in order to explain the interesting passages in the work of Porphyrius, thoroughly and with a marvelous erudition old and new authors. He seems to plunder a whole library, from Plato to Spinoza, from the New Testament to Leibniz, to prove his point. Ad 2: The second work 'On the abstention of eating flesh' is the most important work on ancient vegetarianism that has survived. In it Porphyrius tries to convince his friend Firmus Castricius to abstain from the eating of flesh of slaughtered animals at the official offerings to the Gods. It is a kind encyclopaedia of ancient vegetarian and anti vegetarian thought. As for Plotinus, the aim of philosophy was for Porphyrius the communion with God, and an ascetic life was the way to achieve this. An important element of ascetism was the abstinence of eating flesh and killing animals for that purpose. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, 6th century B.C., is considered to be the founder of vegetarianism. Membership to his order entailed inter alia a strict discipline of purity and the abstention from flesh. Many ancient vegetarians believed in the transmission of the human soul to other human beings, including animals. Others believed that eating flesh was injurious to the health of body and soul. For others a vegetarian lifestyle was preferable out of concern for animals themselves. Animals can suffer like humans, and therefore the use of violent and unnecessary killing of them ought to be avoided. 'Perhaps the most sophisticated grounds for ancient vegetarianism, however, are found in Porphyry. His argument (...) involves the claim that rationality is not a defensible criterion for receiving moral respect, because on this basis many members of our own species (the marginal cases of humanity, including the mentally defective) would not be protected. If we lowered the criterion for receiving moral respect to sentiency, so as to protect the marginal cases of humanity, we must, in order to be consistent, also protect sentient animals'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass., 2010, p. 960/61, s.v. Vegetarianism) Sentiency, the ability to feel and to suffer, still is the cornerstone of modern vegitarianism and the 'animal rights's movement'. § This edition of De abstinentia was produced by the Dutch classical scholar Jacobus de Rhoer, born in 1723. He was a student of Peter Wesseling, professor of Greek of the University at Utrecht. In 1745 he became professor 'Historiae, Eloquentiae et Linguae Graecae' of the Athenaeum at Deventer. In his last years in Deventer De Rhoer produced this edition. It was dedicated to the 20 members of the City Council, for which dedication De Rhoer received 100 Ducates. In 1767 De Rhoer succeeded Van Lennnep as professor of Eloquence and Greek of the University at Groningen. (J.G. Gerretzen, Schola Hemsterhusiana, Nijmegen 1940, p. 329-336) De Rhoer died in 1813. The basis for his edition was a manuscript from the collection of the Dutch book collector G. Meerman. (Praefatio p. II) He thanks in the preface also the German philologist Johann Jakob Reiske who lived in Leipzig, for having sent him his readings of a 'Codex Lipsiensis'. (p. III) In constituting the Greek text he follows the edition which was published in Cambridge in 1655) (Collation: Ad 1: +-4+4, 5+1; *-4*4, 5*2, chi1, A-Q4, R1 (leaf chi1 is originally 5+2. This leaf has been replaced according to the instructions for the binder). Ad 2: pi2 (minus leaf p1, see explanation at the end of the collation), *- 4*4; A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa- Eee4, Fff2) (Leaf pi1, which the STCN copy calls for, is a leaf showing only a stocklist of 22 other titles published by Van Paddenburg)) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 153680 Euro 900.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Altertum, Altertum, Altertumswissenschaft, Antike, Antiquity, Dutch imprints, Greek literature, Greek text, Griechische Literatur, Grotte der Nymphen, Homer, Homeros, Homerus, Latin translation, Odyssea, Odysseus, Odyssey, Philosophie, Van Goens, Van Paddenburg, cave, cavern of the nymphs, classical philology, philosophy