Cl. Claudiani Quae exstant. Varietate lectionis et perpetua adnotatione illustrata a Io. Matthia Gesnero. Accedit index uberrimus.

8vo. 2 volumes: (XIV) p., p. 1-400; (2),401-720; 222 (index),(2 blank). Vellum. 20 cm (Ref: Neue Pauly, Suppl. 2, p. 178: ‘enthält (…) nützlichen lat. Komm.’; Schweiger 2,184: ‘Im wesentlichen ist der Text der Ausg. von Heinsius (1650) wiederhohlt, aber auch dessen spätere Emendationen u. ältere Ausgg. zu Rathe gezogen. Die kurzen Anmerkgg. erläutern trefflich den Sinn, die Sprache u. die Sachen’; Dibdin 1,471/72: ‘A work so recommended (…) will not make the student hesitate long about the necessity of procuring it.’; Moss 1,377: ‘undoubtedly a very excellent and valuable edition’.; Ebert 4759; Brunet 2,88; Graesse 2,194; Not yet in VD18; Fabricius/Ernesti 3,202) (Details: 2 thongs laced through the joints. Back ruled gilt, and with a black shield in the ‘second’ and ‘fourth compartment’. Endpapers and edges marbled) (Condition: Vellum age-tanned and slightly soiled. The edges of the shields on the back damaged. The boards of volume 1 are slightly outstanding, volume 2 more so. Foxed, paper somewhat browning) (Note: The Roman poet Claudius Claudianus, ca. 400 AD, ‘war ein sehr fruchtbarer, temperamentvoller Dichter und bietet reichen historischen Stoff in rhetorischem Stil’. (Buchwald, Tusculum-Lexikon, 3rd ed. p. 171/172) As ’tribunus et notarius’ he acted as court poet, eulogizing the emperor Theodosius, his general Stilicho, and the emperor’s sons Honorius and Arcadius. In 400 he was honoured with a bronze statue on the Forum Trajanum in Rome, and a rich bride selected for him by Stilicho’s wife. He is the last representative of the classical tradition of Latin poetry. ‘In diction and technique he bears comparison with the best Silver Age work, but his considerable gifts of invective, description and epigram are offsett by a deplorable tendency of over-elaboration. His writings are a useful (…) historical source for his period’. (OCD 2nd ed. p. 245) Claudianus died ca. 404. § His work was widely read in the Middle Ages. The humanists also placed him on the center stage. In the beginning of the 20th century philologist lost interest, but since the rise of interest in late antiquity in the sixties, he is again recognized as one of the great Roman poets. This edition of Claudian of the German classical scholar Johann Matthias Gesner, 1691-1761, gives evidence of sound scholarship, but, just like his many other editions of ancient authors of Gesner, the edition does never break new ground. It just is a testimony of solid current knowledge. Textual critiscism was not Gesner’s strongest point. His notes are excellent and learned, well calculated to illustrate the poet. The edition contains erudite prolegomena, a literary history of Claudianus, ‘variae lectiones’, and a useful account of editions. Gesner earned lasting fame with his epoch-making lexicographic work, especially with his revised edition of the ‘Dictionarum, seu Latinae linguae thesaurus’ of Robertus Stephanus (London 1734). Wilamowitz calls Gesner the ‘Praeceptor Germaniae’, ‘denn er hat die Leipziger Thomasschule zu einer Musteranstalt gemacht, (…) und ihm bleibt der Ruhm, das erste philologisches Seminar gegrundet zu haben’. (U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, ‘Geschichte der klassichen Philologie’, Leipzig/Berlin 1921, p. 42) (Collation: a-c8 (chi1 ‘addenda emendanda’ after leaf a1); A-Z8, Aa-Bb8, chi1 (title second volume), Cc-Zz8, Aaa-Nnn8 (leaf Nnn8 blank)) (Photographs on request)