‎THUCYDIDES.- PAULINUS,F. ‎
‎Praelectiones Marciae, sive Commentaria in Thucydidis Historiam, seu Narrationem de Peste Atheniensium. Ex ore Fabii Paulini Utinens(is), philosophi et medici, in Veneto Gymnasio ad D. Marci Bibliothecam, excepta, et edita. Ad Excellentiss. III. Viros, Veneti, Patavinique Gymnasii. Cum triplici indice; uno Quaestionum, altero Auctorum, tertio rerum memorab. Cum privilegiis. ‎

‎Venice (Venetiis), Apud Juntas, 1603. ‎

Reference : 130396

‎4to. (XLIV),600 p. Overlapping vellum 23 cm (Ref: Hoffmann 3,563; Schweiger 1,331; Ebert 22957) (Details: Two thongs laced through the joints. Gilt red morocco letterpiece on the back. Printer's mark of the Giunta family on the title: a fleur-de-lys. Woodcut initials, good paper, fine printing) (Condition: old and small inscription on front pastedown; a bigger one on the front flyleaf. Name and a faint small inkstain on the title. Some very small wormholes near the lower edge, keeping far away from any text; holes have occasionally been mended with a layer of thin paper) (Note: This volume contains the exhaustive and learned lecture notes of Fabio Paolino da Udine, or Fabius Paulinus Utinensis, on the description of the plague epidemy by the Greek historian Thucydides (Thuc. Hist. 2.47-58). This epidemy reached the war-stricken city of Athens in 430 B.C. at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war which lasted from 431 till 404 B.C. Thucydides is the first to describe the social upheaval of a pandemy and its consequences. The identification of what was the cause of this pandemy is until this day a matter of controversy. Fabius Paulinus Utinensis, born at Udine ca. 1535, was the very man for a commentary on this subject. 'His first training in Greek and Latin was at Venice with Bernardino Partenio. Later he went to Padua where he graduated in philosophy and medicine, but studied rhetoric and Arabic as well. He practiced medicin for a time before he became public professor at Venice where he taught Greek in the School of San Marco and Latin in the Collegio de'Notai. Both chairs he obtained in 1588, as the successor of Bernardino Partenio'. ('Medieval and Renaissance Latin translations and commentaries vol. 8', Washington 2003, p. 180). Paulinus held his lectures in the library of the San Marco Gymnasium. The work starts with a list of 232 questions concerning the possible causes of the pest. Each chapter is preceded by the relevant Greek text and a Latin translation. On the flyleaf a former owner has written a quotation from Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', chapter XLIII, note 90: 'I was indebted to Dr. Hunter for an elaborate commentary on this part of Thucydides (the plague of Athens), a quarto of 600 pages, Ven. 1603 apud Juntas, which was pronounced in St. Marks Library by Fabius Paullinus (sic) Utinensis, a physician and philosopher'. These passages of Thucydides helped Gibbon to understand the impact of the pest epidemy which ravaged Konstantinople in 542 under the emperor Iustinian) (Provenance: Name on the title of 'Joannis Molini'. This must be a relative of one of the 3 senators of the Gymnasium to whom Paulinus dedicates his work. The book is dedicated to 'M. Anto. Memmo', and the noblemen 'Francisco Molino' & 'Antonio Priolo') (Collation: a-d4, e6; A-4F4) (Photographs on request) ‎