‎PHAEDRUS. ‎
‎Phaedri, Aug. liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum libri V. Cum integris commentariis Marq. Gudii, Conr. Rittershusii, Nic. Rigaltii, Is. Neveleti, Nic. Heinsii, Joan. Schefferi, Jo. Lud. Praschii, & excerptis aliorum. Curante Petro Burmanno. ‎

‎The Hague (Hagae-Comitum), Apud Henricum Scheurleer, 1718. ‎

Reference : 130381

‎8vo. 2 parts in 1: (LXII),398;258,(70 index) p., including frontispiece. Vellum 19.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 189725249; Schweiger 2,735; Dibdin 2,280; Moss 2,394; Graesse 5,253; Ebert 16595) (Details: 6 thongs laced through both joints. Borders of the boards tooled in blind with double fillet, and with gilt floral ornaments at the corners of blind tooled rectangles. Title in red & black. Printer's device on the title, which depicts a flying Hermes; with an appropriate motto: 'Voor konst en koopmanschap'. Frontispiece designed by P. Tiedeman and executed by J. Mulder, depicting Phaedrus with pen on paper while listening to his Muse; in the background Aesopus surrounded by fable animals) (Condition: Vellum soiled. Back spotted. All 4 ties gone. Front hinge cracking, but still strong. A few gatherings are slightly loosening. The paper of the frontispiece is yellowing) (Note: The Roman poet Phaedrus, 15 B.C. - ca. 50 A.D., occupies in the history of the fable a very important role. He was a slave of Thracian descent, and became a freedman (libertus) of the first Roman emperor Augustus. He composed 5 books (probably incomplete) of verse fables. His beast-tales are adaptions of the fables of the Greek poet and archfabulist Aesopus, or Aisopos (6th century B.C), and inventions of his own. Phaedrus prides himself to have elevated the fable into an independent genre of literature. Sometimes he satirizes contemporary conditions, and he is always fond of emphasizing the moral of the story. 'The presentation is, in general, animated and marked by a brevity of which Phaedrus is rightly proud, but which sometimes leads to obscurity' (OCD 2nd ed. p. 809). Nevertheless, his style is clear, pure and simple, this in contrast to the swollen rhetoric of his time. He was widely read in the Middle Ages. During the 17th & 18th he was also very much en vogue. Schweiger lists hundreds of editions. Very popular among scholars and students were the Dutch 'Variorum' editions of Phaedrus. This kind of editions offered a 'textus receptus' which was widely accepted, and was accompanied with the commentary and the annotations of various specialists, taken or excerpted from earlier useful, normative or renewing editions. Editions like these, 'cum notis Variorum', were useful, but never broke new ground. This 'Variorum edition' was produced by the leading scholar Petrus Burmannus, 1668-1741. He was professor of Latin at the University of Utrecht from 1696, and at Leiden from 1715. As an editor he was an industrious manufacturer of 'Variorum' Editions, confining himself to the Latin classics. He edited besides Phaedrus, Horace, Claudian, Ovid, Lucan, and the Poetae Latini Minores, Petronius, Quintilian, Suetonius. (Sandys 2 p. 343/5). Moss declares that this edition of Phaedrus by Burmannus 'is held in considerable estimation'. Moss's high opinion may be correct, and the motto on the title, 'for art and trade' may also speak of great expectations, nevertheless it was not the success the publisher Scheurleer hoped for. We compared this 1718 edition with copies of the edition of 1728, brought on the market by the wellknown Leyden based firm of Samuel Luchtmans, and must conclude that Luchtmans must have bought the remainder of unsold copies of the edition of 1718 from Scheurleer, removed the original title, and added only a new title-page dated 1728. The books are identical, except for the title-page) (Collation: pi1, *8 (minus leaf *8), 2*-3*8, 4*6, chi1; A- 2B8 (leaf 2B8 blank); a-v8, x4) (Photographs on request) ‎