‎MEURSIUS,J. ‎
‎Ioannis Meursii Glossarium Graeco-Barbarum. In quo praeter vocabula quinque millia quadringenta, Officia atque Dignitates Imperii Constantinop. tam in Palatio, quam Ecclesia aut Militia, explicantur, & illustrantur. Editio altera emendata, & circiter MDCCC vocabulis aucta. ‎

‎Leiden (Lugduni Batavorum), Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1614. ‎

Reference : 156318

‎4to. (XVI),672 (recte 674),(2 blank) p. Calf . 24 cm <The first important dictionary of medieval and modern Greek> (Ref: STCN ppn 832945064; Willems 91; Rahir 72; Berghman 710; Graesse 4,510; Ebert 13952; Brunet 3,1684) (Details: Back gilt and with 5 raised bands. Red morocco lettring label. Marbled endpapers. Title page printed in red and black. Woodcut of Elsevier's first printer's mark on the title, depicting an aegle that holds a bundle of 7 arrows in its beak, the bird is surrounded by the motto: 'A. 1595, Concordia Res Parvae crescunt'; the seven arrows represent the union of the Seven Provinces of the Dutch republic. Engraved on the verso of the title page the wellknown portrait of Meursius. Printed in 2 columns) (Condition: Binding scuffed, especially at the extremes. Corner of the letterpiece on the back gone. Name on the front flyleaf and on the verso of the title. Small underlinings and marginal notes in ink. Paper slightly foxed, yellowing, and sometimes slightly browning) (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, his lexicographical works, 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, and of Sparta. 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'. Meursius' work was widely used as source by later ancient historians, and they laid the foundations of much later learning. Meursius work was incorporated in Jacobus Gronovius' 'Thesaurus Graecarum antiquitatum', Leiden 1697-1702. The first edition of Meursius' lexicographic work 'Glossarium Graeco-Barbarum' was published by Elsevier at Leiden in 1610. This second augmented edition of 1614 contains more than 5400 words, arranged in alphabetical order, with a translation, explanation and elucidation in Latin. Meursius compiled the glossarium from the works of hitherto published works of Byzantine authors, and from a number of manuscripts of the Library of the Leiden University. The greater part of the 'Glossarium' was later incorporated in the still indespensable 'Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis' (Paris 1688) of the famous French Charles philologist and historian of Byzantium and the Middle Ages, Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange) (Provenance: On the front flyleaf: 'Jo. Aug. Henr. Tittmanni, Dr. P.'. The German theologian and philosopher Johann August Heinrich Tittmann, 1773-1831, was appointed after his 'Habilitation' in 1793 professor of philosophy (1796) and theology (1800) at the University of Leipzig and became known as a writer of numerous philosophical and theological works. (See his Wikipedia article) On the blank margin below Meursius' portrait the name: 'M. Joh. Frider. Fischerus, Coburgensis a C.N. 1751'. This is the philosopher and classical scholar Johann Friedrich Fischer, born at Coburg in 1726. He died in Leipzig in 1799. Fischer was from 1751 'Konrektor', and from 1767 till 1799 Rektor of the 'Thomasschule' at Leipzig, and he was from 1762 also professor of classics at the University of Leipzig. He produced several editions of classical authors and wrote works on Biblical criticism.(See his Wikipedia article)) (Collation: *-2*4, A-4P4 (4P4 blank) (The pagination jumps between the gathering 4C and 4D from 576 to 579. Otherwise nothing irregular, the catchword connects and the text continues as it should) (Photographs on request) ‎