Quinti Curtii Rufi De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni, regis Macedonum, libri superstites. Cum omnibus supplementis, variantibus lectionibus, commentariis ac notis perpetuis, Fr. Modii, V. Acidalii, T. Popmae, Joh. Freinshemii, Joh. Schefferi, Christoph. Cellarii, Nic. Heinsii. Selectis & excerptis Ph. Rubenii, J. Rutgersii, C. Barthii, Joh. Loccenii, M. Raderi, Cl. Salmasii, J.F. Gronovii, M. Tellierii, Christoph. Aug. Heumanni, itemque Jac. Perizonii vindiciis, & aliorum observationibus, auctioribusque indicibus curavit & digessit Henricus Snakenburg.

4to. (XXXVII),824,222,1 p. Frontispiece, folding map & 17 engraved plates. Vellum 25 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 141302143; Schweiger 2,323; Brunet 2,450: ‘édition très estimée’; Moss 2,549: ‘This is undoubtedly a very excellent and copious edition’; Ernesti 2,352/3; Dibdin 2,376/7: ‘a very valuable performance, and deservedly held in high respect’; Ebert 5554: ‘Eine der schätzbarst. Ausgg. dieser Art’; Graesse 2,311/12; Spoelder p. 580, ‘s-Gravenhage 5) (Details: Prize copy, without the prize. Back with 6 raised bands. Boards with gilt borders, and the gilt coat of arms of The Hague. Title in red & black. Woodcut printer’s mark of Luchtmans on the title. Folding map of the expedition of Alexander, plates with archaeological object, mythological scenes and portraits. The catchword on the last leaf of the first gathering (leaf 1cross4 verso), containing the ‘Dedicatio’, does not connect to the heading of the next gathering 2cross4, which contains the preface (Benevolo Lectori). This preface was inserted, as often occured, in a later stage of the production) (Condition: Prize removed. Vellum slightly soiled) (Note: ‘This is one of the most valuable Editions of the Latin Classics I have ever read. Snakenburg has approved himself in this work to be a very able and judicious critic. Few editors have illustrated their authors so well’. With this quotation begins the review of Moss of this quarto Variorum edition. Like other Variorum editions it offers a ’textus receptus’ which is widely accepted, in this case the text published by the German scholar Johannes Casper Freinsheim, 1608-1660, which appeared in 1640. The text on the upper half of the pages is accompanied with the commentary and the annotations of various specialists on the lower half, These are taken, or excerpted from earlier useful, normative or renewing editions. Editions like this one, ‘cum notis Variorum’, were useful, but never broke new ground. The production of these sometimes overloaded vehicles of knowledge was the specialty of Dutch scholars of the 17th and 18th century. The compilers seldom were great scholars, but often hard working schoolmasters. Yet Snakenburg did also some research. In a long and well-wrought introduction Snakenburg elaborates on the books he used, and the scholars who helped him. He seems to have digested anything worth knowing about Curtius Rufus. He also asked permission from the University Library of Leiden to consult a ‘codex antiquissimus’. He further inspected 2 other manuscripts, one ‘minime negligendus’, and the third of a more recent date, both ‘codices Vossiani’. He collected readings, emendations, and collations from all normative sources, but also e.g. annotations which he found in the margins of a book once owned by the Dutch scholar Nicolaas Heinsius, 1620-1681. § Quintus Curtius Rufus, probably first cent. A.D., is the author of the only surviving monography on Alexander the Great in Latin. This work, consisting of 10 books, did not survive in its entirety, the first 2 books are lost. The text of Curtius Rufus is preceded in this edition by a rather peculiar philological accomplishment by Freinsheim. He endeavoured to repair the loss of the 2 lost books by a composition of his own, a feat which was much admired by his contemporaries. He had published this addition earlier in his edition of 1640. The only thing Hendrik Snakenburg, 1674-1750, ever did for scholarship is this Variorum edition. The praise and success which he earned with this one edition, makes it likely that he was a good critic with a sound judgement. Snakenburg spent his life teaching classics at the ‘Schola Latina’ of Leiden. In 1740 he was appointed Rector. In Leiden he was befriended with the classical scholar J. Gronovius and one of the publishers of this book, Samuel Luchtmans. His portrait, painted by J. Houbraken in 1715, is in the possession of the ‘Lakenhal’ in Leiden. (For Snakenburg see Van der Aa 17-2,801 and NNBW 2,1333/4) (Provenance: In pencil on the front pastedown: ‘Dr. Brinkgreve’. This is Dr. Marius Roelof Johan Brinkgreve, 1888-1966, a Dutch teacher of classics at the gymnasium of Utrecht, (1912-1919), later till 1937 the director of ‘Koninklijke Begeer’ a silver-factory in the small town of Voorschoten. He was an active fascist, ca. 1933 party offical of the ‘Nationale Unie’, and in 1934 leader of the ‘Algemeene Nederlandsche Fascisten Bond’. During WW II he sided with the German oppressor. (See for Brinkgreve, ‘Repertorium kleine politieke partijen, 1918-1967’; also G. Brinkgreve, ‘Schrijvend in ’t Aalsmeerder veerhuis, opstellen van Geurt Brinkgreve’, 1982, p. 93/105, with a portrait) (Collation: pi1 (frontispiece), 1-cross4, 3cross1, *-7*4, A-6P4, 6Q4 (minus leaf 6Q4) 6R2 (leaf 6R2 blank) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)