M. Annaei Lucani Pharsalia cum commentario Petri Burmanni.

4to. (LII),735,(1 blank) (160 indices) p. Marbled calf. 26 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 239852117; Schweiger 2,565; Dibdin 2,186; Brunet 3,1200; Moss 2,242: ‘A very excellent and critical edition, and by far the best which has yet been published’; Fabricius/Ernesti 2,147/48: ‘ceteris praeferenda’; Ebert 12350; Graesse 4,273/74; Spoelder p. 642/3, Middelburg 4) (Details: Prize copy. Backstrip ruled in gilt. Red morocco shield on the back. Gilt coat of arms of Middelburg on both boards. Gilt palmette motifs along the borders of the boards. Title in red and black. On the title also a large engraving of a battle scene, the battle of Actium, designed by J. de Groot, and engraved by J. v.d. Spyk) (Condition: The back has been repaired expertly. The front flyleaf, with on it the prize, was removed and replaced by a flyleaf of a lesser quality paper, and has chipping edges. Some foxing) (Note: This edition of Petrus Burmannus, 1668-1741, professor of Latin at the University of Utrecht from 1696, and at Leiden from 1715, is highly praised by Dibdin. He remarks that this is a valuable edition. It is sometimes preferred to the edition of Oudendorp of 1728, he says. The text of Burman’s edition is founded on that of Cortius. This edition is important, because Burmannus prints and discusses in the commentary for the first time the many variant readings from more than 25 manuscripts that were collated by the great Dutch scholar Nicolaas Heinsius, 1620-1681, and were jotted down in the margins of a Lucan edition of 1542 that he (Heinsius) once owned. (Praefatio p. *2 verso) § As an editor Burman was an industrious manufacturer of Variorum Editions. He confined himself to the Latin classics, and edited Phaedrus, Horace, Claudian, Ovid, Lucan, and the Poetae Latini Minores, Petronius, Quintilian and Suetonius. (Sandys 2 p. 343/5) The genius Housman is more critical in the praefatio of his edition of Lucan. ‘An edition of much less value than either of the foregoing (Oudendorp of 1728, Cortius of 1726) was put forth in 1740 near the end of his long life, by the elder Burman. The notes are desultory, diffuse and often trivial, (…). But his familiarity with Latin poets was great, (…) so that he resolved some difficulties which had baffled others, and achieved at v 137 one most admirable emendation’. (Housman, Lucanus 1926, p. XXXII) (Provenance: Bookplate of Helena Heyse: ‘Ex libris Helenae Heyse’. Helena Elizabeth Zoraide Heyse was born on the 12th of June 1907 in the Dutch town of Middelburg. In 1931 she married P.E. Scholtz, professor of Afrikaans & Netherlands at the University of Cape Town. She died in 1996. The bookplate was designed in 1930 by the Dutch artist Roline Maria Wichers Wierdsma. (See catalogus.meermanno.nl/detail.aspx?parentpriref=)) (Collation: *-6*4, 7*2, A-5V4) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)