THEOCRITUS. Theocriti, Bionis et Moschi carmina bucolica. Graece et Latine. Latino carmine pleraque reddita ab Eobano Hesso, nonnulla a G.E. Higtio subiecit, Graeca ex edd. primis, codd. & aliunde emendavit, variis lectionibus instruxit L.C. Valckenaer. Leiden (Lugduni Batavorum), Apud Abrahamum et Janum Honkoop, 1781. 8vo. (XVIII),567,(1 blank) p., engraved frontispiece. Half calf. 21.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 23992424X; Hoffmann p. 3,482; Schweiger 1,311; Didbin 2,492: 'Valckenaer alone has done more for Theocritus than all the previous editors of the poet put together'; Moss 2,693: 'the notes are short and perspicuous, and chiefly critical'; Ebert 22779; Graesse 6/2,115) (Details: Greek text and Latin translation. Back gilt. Marbled endpapers. The frontispiece, by B. de Bakker, depicts a bucolic scene from the first idyll of Theocritus, two chatting shepherds. (Id. 1, 12-14) Engraved coat of arms of the Russian Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, 1750-1831, at the beginning of the 'dedicatio'. Valckenaer tell us in the dedication that he has good memories of the Prince's visit to Leiden, and how they read poems of Theocritus. The prince was a great book and art collector. (See his article in Wikipedia 'Nikolay Yusupov') (Condition: Small old paper label at the foot of the spine. Boards with some small scratches. Small paper label on the upper board. Bookplate on the verso of the front flyleaf) (Note: The Greek poet Theocritus, ca. 300 - ca. 260 BC, was a native of Syracuse. He is called the father or inventor of bucolic and pastoral poetry, and the reviver of the mime. His fame chiefly rests on his Idylls, written in hexameter verse and in the Doric dialect. His outstanding dramatic, descriptive and lyric qualities are best displayed in his bucolic poetry. 'Theocritus shares with other poets of his age a preference for the short, highly finished poem, for fresh and sometimes exotic themes, and for new forms or old forms used in new ways. Nevertheles, he transcends his age in his ability to select and concentrate his material, in the freshness of his observation of people and scenes, in the vivacity of his narratives and descriptions, in imagery and lyricism, and above all in his dramatic power.' (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 1054) § Moschus, ca. 150 BC and also from Syracuse, is according to Suidas the next after Theocritus to write pastoral poetry. He was an imitator, like Bion. § This edition of 1781 is a reissue of the edition which was previously published in 1779 by Le Mair and De Chalmot, at Leiden and Kampen. Honkoop purchased the remaining stock of this Theocritius edition after the death of Le Maire, changed the impressum on the title page, and brought it on the market for a second time, now with his own name. § The edition contains Bion and Moschus and the whole of Theocritus. 'It is by far the most critical and valuable which has yet been published; in it the editior has bestowed very great labour upon the restoration of true readings - it contains an amazing fund of valuable illlustrations, which no man was ever so well calculated to amass as Valckenaer, who to an almost incredible extent of reading, united sound ciritism and elegant erudition'. (Moss). Valckenaer based his edition on many earlier Theocritus editions, e.g. of Zacharias Kallierges, Rome 1516, and of Ralph Thomas Winterton, Cambridge 1635. He adopted the Latin translation of Theocritus made by the German scholar Helius Eobanus Hessius, first published in 1530, supplementing it with translations of Daniel Heinsius and Hugo Grotius. Valckenaer also added, 'ex autographis' a Latin translation of Bion & Moschus made by the Dutch poet Ernst Willem Higt, latinized as Higtius, 1723-1762. Higt was for 6 years a student of Valckenaer in Franeker. After his studies Higt was appointed in 1749 rector of the Gymnasium at Alkmaar. Valckenaer praises in a short 'Lectori' his poetic talents, and calls him a 'Poeta graece et latine perdoctus', who 'media aetate nobis omnibus flebilis occidit'. § The Frisian scholar Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer, latinized Ludovicus Casparus Valckenarius, 1715-1785, who produced this edition of the Greek poets Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, was a pupil of Tiberius Hemsterhuis, a Frisian too, and after him the greatest Dutch classical scholar of the 18th century. Hemsterhuis was professor of Greek at the University of Franeker from 1717 till 1740, and from 1740 till 1765 at the University of Leiden. Hemsterhuis was the founder of a Dutch school of criticism, the so-called 'Schola Hemsterhusiana', which had in Valckenaer its best known disciple. Valckenaer studied Greek in Franeker under Hemsterhuis, and succeeded to his chair in 1741. In 1765 he left for Leiden, once again as successor of his beloved teacher. Both created a golden age of Greek studies in the Netherlands. Still a student Valckenaer edited a Greek lexicon of the grammarian Ammonius, 'De adfinium vocabulorum Differentia', Leiden 1739. In Franeker he produced a revised and augmented edition of Fulvio Orsini's 'Virgilius illustratus', Leeuwarden 1747. This title is important for the history of scholarship for its inclusion of the text of the 22nd book of the Iliad of Homer, accompanied by an introduction, 'variae lectiones' and the 'editio princeps' of scholia of Porphyrius and other hellenistic and byzantine scholars. In 1755 Valckenaer published an edition of Euripides' 'Phoenissae', with his rich commentary, and a Latin translation by Hugo Grotius. Among his best works are two other Euripides editions, this Hippolytus edition of 1768 and his 'Diatribe in Euripidis perditorum dramatum reliquias' of 1767. Valckenaer also produced editions of the Idylls of Theocritus, Leiden 1773, and of the complete works of bucolic poets Theocritus, Bion and Moschus. 'Theocriti, Bionis, et Moschi Carmina Bucolica', Leiden & Kampen 1779. His Callimachus was published posthumously by J. Luzac in 1799) (Provenance: This book was bound by the Gouda bookbinder S.H. van der Kraats, 'achter de Groote kerk A. 31'. Sijbrand Hendrik van der Kraats, born in Workum in 1828, came to Gouda, and was there bookbinder from 1855. He died in Gouda in 1904. His small blue paper label is on the front pastedown. We could not trace on the internet any other book bound by this binder. § On the flyleaf the book-label of 'Dr. J.H. Holwerda'. The Dutch archeologist Jan Hendrik Holwerda, 1873-1951, was appointed curator at the 'Rijksmuseum van Oudheden' (RMO) in Leiden in 1904, and in 1910 as its vice president (onderdirecteur). In the same year he became lecturer in Leiden in Prehistoric and Roman archeology. In 1919 he succeeded his father as director of the Museum. This directorate lasted till his retirement in 1939. From 1935 to 1948 he was also director of the Provincial Roman 'Rijksmuseum Kam' in Nijmegen) (Collation: *8(*1+pi1) (leaf *1 is a stocklist of 11 titles available at Honkoop's; between leaf *1 and *2, the title page, has been added leaf p1, the frontispiece), A-2M8, 2N4 (leaf 2N4 verso blank)) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 156842 Euro 200.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Binding, Bion, Bucolics, Bucolik, Greek literature, Greek text, Griechische Literatur, Hellenistic poetry, Hellenistische Poesie, Latin translation, Moschus, antike altertum antiquity