‎FLORUS. ‎
‎Lucii Annaei Flori Rerum Romanarum editio novissima, accurante Joanne Freinshemio. In qua quid praestitum sit, aversa pagina docet. ‎

‎Strassburg (Argentorati), Apud Georg. Andr. Dolhopf & Joh.Eberh. Zetzner, 1669. ‎

Reference : 120131

‎8vo. (32),452,(155, 'Variae lectiones' & index),(1 blank) p.; frontispiece. Vellum 17 cm (Ref: VD17 3:306199X; Schweiger 2,361; Fabricius/Ernesti 2,444; Graesse 2,605) (Details: 5 thongs laced through the joints. Frontispiece depicts two discussing Roman warriors, at their feet the she-wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus, above their head soars a big eagle holding in its claws a crown and a scepter. Woodcut printer's mark, depicting a bust of the Greek goddess Athena) (Condition: 3 thongs of the joint of the lower board snapped. Vellum age-toned & somewhat soiled. Pastedown of the lower board detached. Old ink annotations in the first gatherings. Ten gatherings browning) (Note: Favourite school-book in the 17th century. This is the chief work of the Roman historian Lucius Annaeus Florus, who lived at the beginning 2nd century AD. It is an abridgement of Roman history with special reference to the wars waged up to the age of Augustus. Florus 'shows a certain literary gift, marred, however, by a strong tendency to rhetoric. His brevity often entails obscurity, though he sometimes produces a felicitous epigram. (...) As an historian he is often inaccurate in both chronology and geography, but the work as a whole achieves a limited success as a rapid sketch of Roman military history. It was a favourite school-book in the 17th century'. (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 442) This Florus edition was produced by the German classical scholar Johannes Casper Freinsheim, 1608-1660. He was an excellent representative of the flourishing school of Roman History at the University of Strassburg. 'The editions of the Roman historians published by this school were distinguished for the excellence'. According to Sandys he 'produced excellent editions of Florus'. (Sandys 2, p. 367) . At the end have been added 22 pages with 'Variae Lectiones' and an index of 134 pages, of which Fabricius/Ernesti record that 'In indice multa ad explicandam latinitatem pertinentia sunt'. This edition of 1669 is a reissue of the edition of 1636, also printed by Zetzner in Strassburg. It is based, according to the enumeration on the verso of the title, on earlier editions: 'Flori contextus, a Iohanne Camerte, Ioanne Stadio, Elia Vineto, Iano Grutero, Claudio Salmasio & Isacio Pontano, e manuscriptis codicibus emendatus, in versiculos distinctus'. Freinshemius added many conjectures of his own, consulting older editions. In the introduction however no mention is made of manuscripts, but 'interdum etiam ubi manifesta correctionis ratio est, ex aliorum ingenio nostroque restituimus'. (p. a8 verso)) The editio of Camertis is of 1518, Stadius of 1567, Vinetus of 1576, Gruter of 1597, Salmasius of 1609, Pontanus of 1626. The notes at the end of each caput have been selected from the just mentioned editors, '& quotquot ex aliis philologicis auctoribus, nostrove ingenio depromere licuit' (p. a2 verso)) (Collation: a-b8, A-2P8 (leaf 2P8 verso blank) (Photographs on request) ‎