‎MEURSIUS,J. ‎
‎Ioannis Meursi Regnum Atticum. Sive de regibus Atheniensium, eorumque rebus gestis, libri III. ‎

‎(Amsterdam (Amstelodami), Apud Ioannem Iansonium, 1633. ‎

Reference : 130259

‎4to. 238;(25 index),(1 blank) p. Contemporary mottled calf 20 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 085747009) (Details: Back gilt and with 5 raised bands. Red morocco letterpiece. Woodcut printer's device on the title, depicting a farmer with a shovel, and a man with a Jacob's staff before his eye, between them a celestial sphere, above them Fama blowing 2 trumpets, motto: 'Vivitur ingenio', short for 'Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt'. Edges dyed red) (Condition: Upper margin of the title dustsoiled and with some minute tears. Armorial bookplate on the front pastedown) (Note: The Dutch classicist and historian Johannes Meursius (Johannes van Meurs), 1579-1639, was professor of History and Greek in the university of Leiden from 1610 till 1620. He studied under the genius J.J. Scaliger, and is best known for the 'editiones principes' of a number of Byzantine authors that he produced, and the 'editio princeps' of the 'Elementa Harmonica' of Aristoxenus (1616). He edited also the 'Timaeus' of Plato with the commentary and translation of Chalcidius (1617). Meursius' indefatigable labours concerned also the history of ancient Greece, and especially Eleusis, and the antiquities of Athens and Attica. His work was widely used as source by later ancient historians. Nothing that related to the history of Athens he left untouched, law, government, festivals, institutions, manners, literature, religion etc. The dazzling variety of titles of part of his pioneering work seems almost to exhaust the subject 'ancient Athens': De populis Atticae (1616), Atticarum lectionum libri VI (1617), Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. Sive de tragoediis eorum (1619), Panathenaea. Sive de Minervae illo gemino festo (1619), Eleusinia. Sive, de Cereris Eleusinae sacro, ac festo (1619), Fortuna Attica. Sive, de Athenarum origine (1622), Archontes Athenienses. Sive, de ijs, qui Athenis summum istum magistratum obierunt (1622), Cecropia. Sive de Athenarum arce, & ejusdem antiquitatibus (1622), De ludis Graecorum (1622), Pisistratus. Sive, de ejus vita, & tyrannide (1623), Athenae Atticae. Sive, de praecipuis Athenarum antiquitatibus (1624), Areopagus. Sive, de senatu areopagitico (1624), Regnum Atticum. Sive, de regibus Atheniensium (1633), Reliqua Attica; sive, ad librum De populis Atticae, paralipomena (1684), Theseus, sive de ejus vita rebusque gestis (1684), Themis Attica sive De legibus Atticis (1685) It is manifest that Meursius with these works laid the foundations of much later learning. This title of 1633 was incorporated in Jacobus Gronovius' 'Thesaurus Graecarum antiquitatum', Lugduni Batavorum 1697-1702, vol. IV, col. 1021-1140) (Provenance: Bookplate of 'William Markham Esq., Becca Lodge Yorkshire'. In the 'History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County York', London 1823, p. 643, in a chapter 'Seat of the nobility and Gentry of the West Riding of Yorkshire' a William Markham Esq., who lived at Becca Lodge, 1 mile North of Aberbord, is mentioned. In 1804 he was a member of the Grand Jury of York. He was the eldest son of William Markham, Archbishop of York, who died in 1807. He was born on 5th of April 1760. He 'was private secretary to Warren Hastings, and subsequently resident for some time at Benares, India. Eventually returning to Yorkshire, he seated himself at Becca Hall. He married 20 Aug. 1795, Elizabeth, dau. of the late Oldfied Bowles, Esq. of North Aston, and died 1841'. (B. Burke, 'Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Irland', London 1871, Volume 2 p. 885) (Collation: A-2K4 (leaf 2K4 verso blank)) (Photographs on request) ‎