‎OVIDIUS. ‎
‎P. Ovidius Nasoos Feestdagen, in Hollandts dicht vertaalt door Arnold Hoogvliet. ‎

‎Delft en Rotterdam, By Adriaan en Jan Daniel Beman, 1719. ‎

Reference : 154218

‎4to. (22 leaves);226,(1 errata) p. Vellum. 21 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 141532653; Geerebaert 122,36; OiN 276; Van der Aa 8/2 1175/9) (Details: Blind tooled back and boards. 6 thongs laced through the joints. A fine frontispiece engraved by J. Goeree, which depicts Ovid kneeling before a statue of Janus,and asking him for inspiration. The text facing the frontispiece explains this allegorical scene, and is the work of his Goeree's friend, the poet Tielman van Bracht. An allegorical vignette, also engraved by Goeree, on the title, it depicts 4 putti, amusing themselves; between them an incensory on a pedestal, on which a text that often accompanies incensory pictures: 'dum placeam peream', 'Provided I please, let me perish') (Condition: Vellum slightly soiled. Both pastedowns detached. Tiny wormhole in the front pastedown and flyleaf. Very small tear in the upper margin of the title-page) (Note: Nice and clean copy of the first edition of the translation by Arnold Hoogvliet, 1687-1763, of Ovid's Fasti. In a long preface Hoogvliet explains why and how he has translated this poem. Although the translation was greeted with enthousiasm by his contemporaries, he had to promise his dying father, that he would write, after this work full of heathen worship, a work full of christian virtues. This promise, 'Abraham, de Aartsvader' was published in 1728, and made his name. He was considered one of the great Dutch poets of his age. (Van der Aa, 8,2 p. 1175/9) The Roman poet Ovid, 43 B.C. - 17 A.D, 'is perhaps the most consistently influential and popular writer of the classical tradition. His central position is suggested by the many surviving manuscripts of his works and their early publication in printed editions. (...) Most would agree that it is his Metamorphoses that has had the greatest influence, but his other major poems, the Heroides, Tristia, Fasti, and particularly his racier works, the Amores, Ars amatoria, and Remedia amoris, have played their part in maintaining his reputation as a writer of enduring importance and appeal'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass. 2010, p. 667) Ovid was widely read in antiquity, and remained to be read at the Carolingian court in the Middle Ages. The 12th/13th centuries are even called the 'aetas Ovidiana', for Ovid's love elegy was one of the mainsprings of the phaenomenon of courtly love and its literary expression. His 'Ars amatoria' and the 'Remedia' became even part of the school curriculum. Ovid became also the favourite poet of the Renaissance. Boccaccio and Petrarca were influenced by him. Shakespeare was inspired more by Ovid than by Vergil. (Neue Pauly 9,110/119) The huge number of editions and translations suggests that Ovid's appeal lies also beyond the bounderies of the scholarly and literary world. The last fourty years have seen a huge increase in attention to Ovids poetry. Towards the end of his life, while in exile, Ovid began to revise a not yet published poem, the 'Fasti'. Death overtook him, and the poem remained half-finished. It is a versified Roman calender for the first 6 months of the year, and contains much important antiquarian information regarding Roman history, rites and customs, dug up from ancient records, 'annalibus eruta priscis'. (Fasti 1,7) 'Ik zal het Roomsche jaar en zyn' getyden dichten,/ En 't op en ondergaan der heldre hemellichten'. (Fasti 1, 1/2) and ''Hier ziet ge 't kerkgebaar en godsdienst afgemaalt,/ En hunnen oorspronk uit de aloudtheit opgehaalt'. (Fasti 1,6/7)) (Collation: (*4), 2*-3*2, 4*-6*4, 7*2; A-2E4,2F2 (leaf 2F2 verso blank)) (Photographs on request) ‎