‎THUCYDIDES. ‎
‎Thucydides over den oorlog der Peloponnesers en Atheners. Vertaald door H. Frieseman. ‎

‎Amsterdam (Te Amsteldam), Bij Pieter den Hengst, 1786. ‎

Reference : 130343

‎8vo. 2 volumes: VIII,424; (II),485,(1) p. Contemporary marbled boards. 21 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 177080426; Geerebaert 84,1; OiN 372) (Details: Backs ruled gilt, and with a blue letterpiece in the 'second compartment') (Condition: Binding worn, especially at the extremes. Backs rubbed. Letterpiece on the back of volume 2 slightly damaged. 1 stamp on the first title. 2 stamps on the second title) (Note: This is the first translation into Dutch of the work of the Greek historian Thucydides, 'perhaps the greatest historian who has yet lived, incontestably the greatest in antiquity'. (H.J. Rose, A handbook of Greek literature, London, 1965, p. 302) The translation was made by the Dutch schoolman Hendrik Frieseman, born ca. 1755. Later in life he succeeded in obtaining the rectorship of the 'Schola Latina' of Harderwijk, where he died in 1821. (Van der Aa, 16,252) In his short preface Frieseman tells us that he used for his translation the text of Duker. This must be the very learned edition, with text and exhaustive commentary, produced by Carolus Andreas Duker, Amsterdam 1731. Frieseman tried, he says, to imitate the compact and succinct style of the Greek historian, and tried to avoid the loose and 'agreable' style of the translation of the Frenchmen Ablancourt, first published in 1662. He reproaches the famous Ablancourt that he occasionaly seems to contradict and improve Thucydides, which is not the task of the translator) (Provenance: stamp on title: 'Bibliotheek Aloysius-college, s'-Gravenhage', and of 'Bibl.-Gymn. Catv.', this must be the Sint Wilbrordus Gymnasium at Katwijk) (Collation: *4, A-2C8, 2D4; pi1, A-2G8, 2H2, (2I)1) (Photographs on request) ‎