Aur. Theodosii Macrobii Opera V.Cl. & inlustris. Accedunt notae integrae Isacii Pontani, Joh. Meursii, Jacobi Gronovii. by MACROBIUS

Leiden (Lugduni Batavorum), Ex officina Arnoldi Doude, Cornelii Driehuysen, 1670. 8vo. (XXXII),704,(68 index) p., frontispiece. Modern half calf. 19.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 832522376; Schweiger 2,587; Brunet 5,1286: 'édition assez estimée'; Ebert 12720; Dibdin 2,220/221: 'ranks among the octavo Variorum Classics, as the best of its author'; STCN doesnot mention the existence of 2 canceled leaves. (See below in 'Details')) (Details: Modern & tasteful binding in antique style. Back with 5 raised bands. Boards covered with marbled paper. Frontispiece depicting Macrobius as a kind of 'penseur'. Woodcut printer's device on the title, depicting a pelican that feeds his 3 young with his own blood; the christian motto of the device is 'Vivimus ex Uno'. Some woodcut initials, and figures in the text. § The cancels of leaf A1 (p. 1/2) and X1 (p. 321/22) have not replaced the original leaves, as they should have; they were not cut out, but remained in their place; the cancels however have erroneously been bound at the end of the book between the leaves 3C1 & 3C2. The original leaf A1 has a shorter note at the bottom of the page, and a fingerprint 'ti', the cancel has a longer note, and its fingerprint is 'ta'; at the beginning of the not cancelled leaf X1 (p. 321/22) a complete line was left out by the printer; the cancel of this leaf at the end, with the complete and corrected text, has this line) (Note: Macrobius, ca. 400, is considered to be one of the last pagan Roman authors. His most important work is the Saturnalia, an account of a long dicussion held during a symposium on the occasion of the Saturnalia. The subjects discussed are grammar, philology, mythology, history. Macrobius also produced a commentary on the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero. The work of this late antique writer is important because he rescued opinions and passages from works that have been lost. The Dutch classical scholar Johannes Isaac Pontanus, 1571-1639, was born at sea (hence his name), when his parents were on their way to Denmark. There he was for some time a helper of Tycho Brahe (NNBW I,1417). In 1606 he became professor of Mathematics at the University of Harderwijk. His edition of Macrobius, which included also notes of the Dutch scholar Johannes Meursius, dates from 1597, a second edition from 1628. § This edition of 1670 was produced by the young Dutch scholar Jacobus Gronovius, 1645-1716, after having finished his studies at the University of Leiden under his father Johannes Fredericus Gronovius, 1611-1671, who was professor of Greek and History from 1658, and from 1665 librarian of the University Library of Leiden. It was Jacobus' first important scholarly feat. In the preface Gronovius tells us that his father allowed him to inspect and cleanse ancient manuscripts, and how he conceived the plan to collate two rather old Macrobius manuscripts that were in a bad shape. ('duorum (...) MStorum situ & squalore horrentium, satis tamen antiquam manum ostendentium') The entire notes of Pontanus and Meursius whicht Gronovius added, are a 'rich harvest of illustration in addition to those of its distinguished editor'. (Dibdin) Later, in 1679, Jacobus succeeded his father as professor of History and Greek) (Provenance: Ownership entry of the Swedish professor Lennart Håkanson of Latin literature on the front flyleaf) (Collation: *-2*8, A-3B8, 3C1 (+ chi2) 3C2)) (Photographs on request)