M. Accius Plautus, ex fide, atque auctoritate complurium librorum manuscriptorum opera Dionys. Lambini Monstroliensis emendatus; ab eodemque commentariis explicatus. Nunc denuo plurimis, quae in praecedentibus editionibus irrepserant, mendis, repurgatus; multisque in locis in gratiam antiquariorum illustratus. Additi quoque sunt duo indices copiosissimi. Prior, verborum, locutionum & sententiarum; posterior, eorum quae commentariis D. Lambini continentur.

4to. (VIII),920,(51 index)(1 blank) p. Calf 25 cm (Ref: Schweiger 2,765; Fabricius/Ernesti 1,18; Moss 2,461; Ebert 17188; cf. GLN 15-16 no. 3810; cf. Dibdin 2,310/11; Graesse 5,328; Ebert 17188) (Details: Back with 4 raised bands. Gilt letterpiece in the second compartment. Boards blindtooled. Title with woodcut architectural borders. Occasional woodcut headpieces and initials) (Condition: Binding very scuffed, that is: hinges cracked, head & tail of the spine chafed, back rubbed, boards scratched, corners bumped, outer edge of upper board abraded. Paper age-toned, occasionally foxed. Small inscription on the front flyleaf) (Note: The French scholar Denys Lambin, Dionysius Lambinus in Latin, 1520-1572, earned his fame in the field of Latin scholarship with his great editions of Horace (1561), Lucretius (1564) and Cicero (1566). He was ‘Professor Regius’ of Greek at the ‘Collège de France’ from 1561 till his death. The 19th century English editor and commentator of Lucretius H.A.J. Munro ranks him as one of the best scholars of his time. He says that ‘The quickness of his intellect united with his exquisite knowledge of the language gave him great power in the field of conjecture, and for nearly 3 centuries his remained the standard text’. (Munro, DRN, 4th ed., vol. 1 p.14/15). Lambinus’ ‘reading was as vast as accurate, and its results are given in a style of unsurpassed clearness and beauty’, Munro adds. In 1576/77, 4/5 years after his death appeared at last his edition of the comedies written by the Roman playwright Plautus, 250-184 B.C. It is his last great work, in which he showed great critical learning and ability to discover hidden meanings and innuendo. He fell ill, exhausted by the weight of his studies, and had only time to complete 13 of the 21 plays. This is told in an address to the reader by Iacobus Helias, or Jacques Hélias, or Jacques Hélie, who was the successor of Lambinus as ‘Regius professor’ of Greek literature from 1572 till 1590, and who completed the work of his colleague. The difficulties, Helias says, in collating manuscripts, mending the text of Plautus, and writing a commentary are enormous. The text is corrupt, and deformed by mistakes and there is a host of different readings, caused by the ignorance and negligence of later generations. Helias lists the humanist scholars who shared with Lambinus their observations on difficult places, not forgetting himself. Lambinus had not left his work on Plautus ready to print. Helias completed the work partly by transcribing what remained of the observations of Lambinus on the subsequent comedies. He complemented what was left open, and supplied and corrected many quotations. Sometimes he had to work out what Lambinus had only sketched. Finally Helias added 2 indices, one for the text of Plautus, and the other for the commentary. Lambinus collated for his edition a number of manuscripts and collected many passages from the ancient grammarians. This is how Lambinus’ Plautus is valued in modern scholarship: ‘Many valuable emendations go back to Denis Lambin (…); his later comments reveal that he had lost energy and acumen due to his ailments’. (Plautus, Vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library no. 60, Cambr. Mass. 2011, p. CXIV). Lambinus’ successor Helias left no trace in the history of scholarship, except for completing the work of his colleague. This edition of 1622, produced by Chouët, is a reissue of this important edition of 1576/77. (Provenance: Written on the front flyleaf: ‘Sum H. S….s J.U. doctoris, anno 1642’. Who the ‘juris utriusque doctor’ was who acquired this book in 1642 we cannot decipher; he was probably a Dutchman or someone from the Rhine valley, for the same hand wrote at the top of the same page: ‘Emptus quatuor florinos’. § In another hand: ‘Ex Biblioth. V. Ampl. J. van Buuren’) (Collation: q4, A-Z8, Aa-Zz8, AA-KK8, LL4, MM-PP8, QQ2 (leaf QQ2 verso blank)) (Photographs on request)