PLAUTUS (LAMBIN, Denis)

PLAUTUS, Titus Maccius (Lambin, Denis; Helius, Eds.). Marcus Accius Plautus, ex fide atque auctoritate complurium librorum manuscriptorum opera emendatus, ab eodemque commentariis explicatus, nunc denuo plurimis, quae in praecedentibus editionibus irrepserant, mendis, repurgatus.

[Geneva], Apud haeredes Eustathij Vignon, 1595.

£ 400

4to, (viii) 920 (lii), ¶4 A-Zz8 2A-2K8 2L4 2M-2P8 2Q2. Roman and Italic letter, some Greek. Printer’s device on title page, decorated initials, head- and tailpieces. Ms. annotations and autographs on t-p (Laurentius Burnell? Fraudir Rindaid?), occasional marginalia. Light age yellowing, some waterstaining affecting outer foot margins and lower gutters. In C19th half calf over wooden boards covered in marbled paper, gilt title to spine.

 

This is the unequalled Lambin’s (Lambinus) edition of the works of Plautus, which originally appeared in 1576. “The celebrity of Lambinus in almost every classical work which he edited, has already been frequently noticed. Of this admirable edition, Lambinus lived to finish only the first twelve comedies; but his colleague, Helius, professor of Greek, completed the work, partly by transcribing what remained in Lambinus’s hand-writing on the subsequent comedies, and partly by the insertion of his own notes, and emendations of the text. In forming the edition, many MSS. And ancient publications were consulted”. “In this excellent edition of Plautus”, says Harwood, “Lambinus hath manifested great learning and critical sagacity” (see T. F. Dibdin, An Introduction to the Knowledge of Rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, 1804, pp. 299-300).

 

“Denys Lambin, or Dionysius Lambinus (1520-1572), won a wide reputation by his great editions of Latin authors…His knowledge of Cicero and the older Latin writers, as well as the Augustan poets, has never been surpassed and rarely equalled” (see J. E. Sandys, A Short History of Classical Scholarship, 1915, pp. 220-21).

 

GLN-3810; Adams P1512. CDM, p. 145; Drummond, Aberdeen, n° 3235; Girard-Le Bouteiller, Basse-Normandie, t. 3, n° 2225 ; Malicki, BJ 16, n° P-842; Shaaber, Univ. of Pennsylvania, P 408; Shaw, Cathedral Libr., 2, P 1140; Verhelst, Limburg, n° 324.