EUNAPIOU TOU SARDIANOU BIOI philosophôn kai sophistôn. Eunapius Sardianus, De vitis philosophorum et sophistarum, Hadriano Iunio Hornano interprete. Graeca cum mss. Palatinis comparata, aucta & emendata Hieronymi Commelini opera. Nunc recens accedunt eiusdem auctoris Legationes, e bibliotheca Andreae Schotti Antverpiani.

8vo. 169,(1),(5 index),(1 blank) p. 18th century boards. 17 cm (Ref: Hoffmann 2,65; Renouard, Stephani, 497 (erronously dating 1612); Schweiger 1,114; Graesse 2,518; Ebert 7069; Brunet 2,1094) (Details: Woodcut printer’s mark on the title, depicting a man on his knees under an olive tree, he is praying; some branches are broken off and are falling down; from the mouth of the man comes on a banner the motto: ‘rami ut ego insererer defracti sunt’, ’the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in’. (Romans 11,19) The text is printed in 2 colums, Greek text with opposing Latin translation) (Condition: Binding soiled and worn. Back chafed. Title page foxed. Paper yellowing) (Note: The Greek neo-Platonist Eunapius was born in Sardes ca. 345 A.D. He was an admirer of the last pagan emperor Julian, and a convinced opponent of christianity. His historical work survives, owing to its anti-christian tenor, only in excerpts. Still extant are the ‘Lives of the Sophists’ written about A.D. 396. ‘They follow Philostratus’ model (Life of Apollnius) and on the basis of first-hand information deal mainly with 4th century Neoplatonists. Eunapius gives an idealized picture in order to compete with the biographies of Christian saints’. (OCD 2nd ed. 416) The ‘editio princeps’ was published in 1568 in Antwerp. This edition already had the Latin translation of the humanist Hadrianus Junius, or in Dutch Adriaen de Jonghe, who was born in 1511 in Hoorn. From the presses of the Flemish scholar/printer Hieronymus Commelinus, 1550?-1597, came the next Eunapius edition, Heidelberg 1596. It was reissued with exact the same title by Paulus Stephanus in 1616. Commelinus, a native of Douai and a protestant, had to flee because of the persecutions. In 1569 he is a student in Heidelberg, and in 1572 he surfaces as bookseller in Geneve, where he cooperates with Pierre de St. André (Officina Sanctandreana). He immatriculates for the second time in Heidelberg in 1585, and is invited in 1587 by the Prince-Elector (Elector Palatinus) to establish a printshop as typographus principis’. Commelinus’ special interest were the publishing of classical texts, edited by great scholars like Casaubon, Scaliger and Gruter. He often did so with the help of manuscripts from the local ‘Bibliotheca Palatina’. Commelinus himself was also active as an editor. In the short preface to this Eunapius edition Commelinus tells how he found 2 Greek manuscripts in the Library of the Prince-Elector (now known as Bibliotheca Palatina), compared them with the text of the ‘editio princeps’, which was edited quite insufficiently (Eunapiio ita misere affecto), and how he in doing so could correct and supplement Eunapius. (Collatis itaque Palatinis duobus cum editione Iunii, quae tuto potuere, correxi, supplevi) (Leaf a2 recto). Commelinus printshop produced in 10 years nearly 140 editions. This 1616 edition was produced by Paul Estienne, who had taken over the Estienne-firm in Geneva after the death of his father Henri Estienne (Henricus Stepanus II). With him ends the Geneva branch of the printer’s dynasty of the Estiennes. Renouard lists between 1603 and 1627 only 27 editions) (Provenance: On the front pastedown in pencil: ’13 maart 1963′, written by the Flemish linguist Walter Couvreur, 1914-1996, who was an Orientalist, and professor of Indoeuropean linguistics at the University of Gent. It indicates the date of aquisition. The place of acquisition he wrote on the flyleaf at the end: ‘Groningen, Bouma’. The price was 8 guilders) (Collation: A – L-8) (Photographs on request)