Demosthenes & Aeschines - Demosthenis et Aeschinis Principum Graeciae Oratorum Opera: . Cum utriusque autoris Vita & Vlpiani - 1572

Demosthenis et Aeschinis Principum Graeciae Oratorum Opera: . Cum utriusque autoris Vita & Vlpiani Commentarijs, nouisq[ue] scholiis, ex Quarta, eaque postrema recognitione, Graecolatina . per Hieronymum VVolfium.

Basileae: Ex officina Heruagiana, per Eusebium Episcopium, 1572. 6 tomes in 1 volume. In large folio [385 x 250 mm]. [XXXVI], 744, [XVI], 368, 218, [XIII]. Acceptable condition. The book has issues as the printer chose a low quality paper. (It doesn’t look as laid paper, as usual in those days, but coated paper, simitar to the paper used at the early 19th century). It’s extraordinary to find a copy today without noteworthy issues. In this copy, we find: old water stains, some tears and gaps, worn edges, some stuck pages, traces of old fungus on some pages. Modern full leather binding (surely mid 20th century) with embossed details and spine with letters. In good condition. Not in Spain’s Collective Catalogue of Bibliographic Heritage (CCPB). Palau 428876.

Famous Latin translation with notes by Jérôme Wolf of the speeches of two of the greatest Attic speakers: Demosthenes and Aeschines. It consists of six volumes. (The first four have continuous pagination. The sixth, Demosthenici operis Graecolatini tomus VI et ultimus, is dated 1571.)

Polyglot work (two-column text in Latin and Greek). In the ancient world, Demosthenes (384-322 BC was as famous as orator as Homer as a poet. He didn’t write books, but his many speeches had considerable political significance in his time. They were recorded and collected, and have been greatly analysed by generations of students of language and rhetoric. Often printed, as here, with the works of Demosthenes were the three extant orations of Aeschines (circa 390-314 BC). He was the archenemy of Demosthenes. In the public life and prayers of Aeschines a concerted attempt to baffle his rival can be seen. In his oration Against Ctesiphon, for example, Aeschines argues that Demosthenes shouldn’t be awarded a crown to honour his services to Athens. As an orator, he possessed a scholarly and passionate eloquence, but, compared to Demosthenes, he lacked taste, judgment, and moral authority. A disciple of Melanchthon and an important scholar of the time, Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580) rose to fame, according to Sandys, with his editions of Suidas, Isocrates (from 1570) and Demosthenes. For the text of this work, he was based on a manuscript kept in the Augsburg Library, the codex Augustanus primus.

'The last and most correct of Wolf's editions (according to Rieske), yet hurried over with arbitrary and unnoticed alterations from mere conjecture: the apparatus (although the various readings are by no means to be depended upon) is of value, though confused and without any order.’ (Ebert). (Adams D268; Ebert 5942) (source: vialibri)