‎WYTTENBACH,D. ‎
‎Bibliotheca critica. ‎

‎Amsterdam (Amstelodami), Apud Petrum Den Hengst, 1779 - 1808. ‎

Reference : 156869

‎8vo. 12 parts in 3 volumes: I: (II),VI,131,(1 blank),(4 advertisement); (II),140; (IV),140; (II),140 p. II: XII,134; (II),140; (II),142; (II),152 p. III: (II),XIV,130; (II),140; (II),XXXVIII,179,(1 blank); LXXIV,224,(3),(1 blank) p. Half calf. 23 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 301147841; Graesse 6/2,481; Ebert 24057; Brunet 5,1487) (Details: Backs ruled gilt and with 5 raised bands. Red and green morocco shield in the 2nd and 3rd compartment) (Condition: Bindings worn, especially at the extremes) (Note: Daniel Albert Wyttenbach is today considered one of the most influential humanists of the 18th century. He was a worthy successor of the great scholars Hemsterhuis, Valckenaer and Ruhnken. 'Wyttenbach's academic fame and merits lie in the area of Greek philology as he is regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Greek philological scholarship. He developed and set new standards regarding the study of grammar, syntax and styles, as well as in the interpretation and translation of Greek classical texts. His philosophical views were committed to the principles of humanism and Enlightenment. (...) His edition of the 'Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia' became a standard text for students and scholars of his time and many generations after'. (H.F. Klemme & Manfred Kuehn, 'The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers', London 2016, p. 871) Daniel Wytttenbach was born at Bern in Switzerland in 1746, offspring of an old-established Swiss family of scholars and theologians. In Marburg and Göttingen he discovered his passion for the Greek classics. He came to Holland in 1770 to study classics under the most famous classical philologists of that time Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer and David Ruhnken. He graduated in 1771, and shortly after became professor at the college of the Remonstrants at Amsterdam. He occupied this post for eight years, and in this period the first part of the Classical Review 'Bibliotheca Critica', to which he was the principal contributor, appeared. From 1779 he was professor at the precursor of the University of Amsterdam, the Athenaeum Illustre, where he taught history, and Greek and Latin literature. He held this professorship until 1799, and then returned to Leyden as Ruhnken's successor for 17 years. He published an edition of the Moralia of Plutarchus (with Latin translation) (1795-1806), a work of permanent value. On the death of Ruhnken he became the most influential classical scholar in the Netherlands. Ruhnken was immortalized by him in: 'Vita Davidis Ruhnkenii' (Leiden & Amsterdam 1799). About this biography Sandys observes: 'The highest praise must be assigned to his 'Life of Ruhnken', a work of absorbing interest to his scholarly contemporaries, which still retains its importance as a comprehensive picture of the Scholarship of the Netherlands, and not of the Netherlands alone, in the age of Ruhnken'. (Sandys 2,465). Wyttenbach died in 1820) (Collation: Volume 1, pars 1: *4, A-H8, I2 (leaf I2 verso blank), 2 (advertisement of Petrus den Hengst) pars 2: pi2 (leaf pi1 blank), A-H8, I6; pars 3: pi2 (leaf pi1 blank), A-H8, I6; pars 4: pi1, A-H8, I6. Volume 2, pars 5: pi2, *8 (minus blank leaves *6/8), A-H8, I4 (leaf I4 blank); pars 6: pi2 (leaf p1 blank), A-H8, I6; pars 7: pi1, A-I8 (minus blank leaf I8); pars 8: pi1, A-L8, K4. Volume 3, pars 9: *8, A-H8, I1; pars 10: pi1, A-I8 (minus blank leaves I7 & I8); pars 11: pi1, *-2*8, 3*3, A-L8, M2 (leaf M2 verso blank); pars 12: pi1, *-4*8, 5*6; A-O8, (P)2 (leaf (P)2 verso blank)) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs) ‎