Dionysius Halicarnasseus - Scripta, quae Extant, Omnia - 1691

THE OFFICE OF THE WORLD: DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA BETWEEN MODERN PHILOLOGY AND UNIVERSAL IMAGINATION
This elegant Lipsian edition of 1691 fully maturely reconstructs one of the most ambitious projects of humanistic philology: the complete reconstruction of the Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ corpus according to the critical criteria fixed by Friedrich Sylburg. It is not a mere editorial re-proposition, but a true refounding of the classical text as a dynamic object, subjected to continuous revision, integration, and interpretation. The Sylburgian framework, based on systematic collation of manuscripts and on an advanced use of the critical apparatus, is here transmitted and consolidated in a German typographic context of the very highest level. The frontispiece in red and black, dominated by a powerful allegorical vignette with terrestrial globes, is not a mere ornament: it visualizes an encyclopedic conception of knowledge, in which history, rhetoric, and cosmology converge into a single intellectual architecture. The volume thus stands as a tool for study and at the same time as a symbolic object, testimony to the modern construction of the Greek canon and its transformation into a device of cultural order.
MARKET VALUE
Complete editions of Dionysius of Halicarnassus derived from Sylburg’s work maintain a constant demand in the antiquarian market, particularly in sixteenth-seventeenth-century German-area reprints, valued for typographic quality and textual solidity. Exemplars in contemporary parchment, complete and in good or very good condition, generally command a price range between €700 and €1,000, with higher figures for particularly fresh copies, well marginated, or with notable provenance.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full parchment binding, with signs of use. Frontispieces printed in red and black with a large engravable vignette depicting two terrestrial globes, set within an allegorical frame with mottoes, a symbolically striking iconographic element. Text in Greek and Latin characters, with clear and rigorous formatting. Paper with diffuse but regular physiological browning. Collation in two quires: pp. (2); 16 ll.; 792; 168; 2 ll.; (4); and pp. (2); 12 ll.; 280; 94; (4). In ancient books, with a multi-centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Dionysii Halicarnassei scripta, quae extant, omnia, et historica, et rhetorica.
Lipsiae, Mauritii Georgii Weidmanni, 1691.
Dionysius Halicarnasseus.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Dionigi di Alicarnasso represents a key figure in the transmission of Greek culture to Rome and, by reflection, to European modernity. His Roman Antiquities constitute a systematic attempt to integrate Roman history within a Greek interpretive framework, while his rhetorical treatises codify stylistic principles destined to influence the humanities profoundly. The edition curated by Friedrich Sylburg in 1586 marked a decisive methodological turning point: for the first time the Dionysian corpus was established through extensive manuscript witness consultation, accompanied by a structured critical apparatus and philological augmentations based on rational criteria. The 1691 reprint not only perpetuates this enterprise, but places it within a new geography of knowledge—the German academic world of the late seventeenth century—where philology becomes a foundational discipline. The globes vignette acquires here a programmatic value: the ancient text is no longer merely a recovered object, but a tool for orientation in the world, a true intellectual cartography in which history becomes space and rhetoric a universal language. In this perspective, the edition stands as an essential node in the transformation of humanistic knowledge into systematic and modern knowledge.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was born around 60 BCE in Asia Minor and moved to Rome after Rome’s conquest of Greece. Here he worked as a rhetoric teacher, integrating into the vibrant Augustan cultural milieu. His major work, the Roman Antiquities, aims to demonstrate the nobility and antiquity of Roman origins through continuous comparison with the Greek world. His rhetorical writings, including De compositione verborum and De imitatione, exerted a profound influence on the theory of style and on literary practice both in antiquity and in the Renaissance.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The modern princeps of the Dionysian corpus was published in 1586 under the care of Friedrich Sylburg, a German philologist active in the reforming humanist milieu, whose work fixed the reference text for over a century. The Lipsian edition of 1691, printed by Mauritii Georgii Weidmanni, continues the tradition of the great German scholarly ateliers, characterized by editorial rigor, attention to the Greek text, and high typographic quality. The continuity of the Sylburgian apparatus attests to the long duration of the humanistic layout, while the updated typographic presentation signals adaptation to an ever broader and more institutionalized scholarly audience. The circulation of these editions was wide in European university libraries, contributing to the definitive canonization of Dionysius within the panorama of classical authors studied.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres, II, coll. 731–733.
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, II, p. 396.
Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, III, pp. 212–220.
VD17, 3:611564T.
ICCU/OPAC SBN, record to verify for Italian localizations (search for “Dionysii Halicarnassei scripta… Lipsiae 1691”).
WorldCat, OCLC record for Lipsia 1691 edition (identifier to verify across multiple institutional copies).
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue général, notices relating to the editions of Dionysius and to the Sylburgian tradition.