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8vo. (VI),997,(35 index) p., engraved title. Recently repaired calf. 19 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 840035284; Schweiger 2,385; Fabricius/Ernesti, 3,102; Graesse 3,304; Ebert 9831) (Details: Boards with blind double fillet borders; the boards have a blind triple fillet rectangle in the center, and on its corners 4 blind stamped 'fleur de lis'. Frontispiece, depicting the seated goddess Roma; she looks in despair at the capture and humiliation of the Roman emperor Valerianus I (the father of Gallienus) by the Sassanid king Shapur after the battle of Edessa (Syria) in 260 A.D. Shapur, who is on horseback, and holds his foot on the neck of Valerianus, using him as a human footstool when mounting; his horse tramples the Roman eagle; this shocking defeat is narrated by 'Trebellius Pollio' in the short biography of 'Valerianus Pater et Filius') (Condition: The spine is rebacked with cloth, the original backstrip has been preserved and pasted on the back. 2 bookplates and some shelf numbers on the front pastedown. 2 ownership entries on the front flyleaf. Outer margin of the title thumbed, and showing 2 minute tears. Paper in the gutter of the first and last 40 p. waterstained, continuing and gradually disappearing halfway) (Note: This is a 'Variorum' edition of the 'Historiae Augustae Scriptores VI', nowadays referred to as 'Historia Augusta'. A 'Variorum' edition generally offers a 'textus receptus' which is widely accepted, accompanied with the commentary and the annotations of various specialists, taken, or excerpted from earlier useful, normative or renewing editions. Editions like these, 'cum notis Variorum', were useful, but never broke new ground. The production was the specialty of Dutch scholars of the 17th and 18th century. The compilers seldom were great scholars, but often hard working schoolmasters. Their involvement in publishing a new edition was limited to the necessary, but ungrateful task of the beast of burden. Such a plodder was the Dutch editor Cornelius Schrevelius, who taught classics at the 'Schola Latina' at Leiden, where he had been raised himself. In 1642 he succeeded his father, Theodorus Schrevelius, as the rector (Moderator) of the school. He raised at least 11 kids, and fell in 1664 victim to the then raging plague. (A.M. Coebergh van den Braak, Meer dan zes eeuwen Leids Gymnasium, Leiden, 1988, p. 47/55; includes also his portrait). § This collection of 30 biographies of Roman emperors, Caesars and usurpers was published for the first time in 1475. It formed part of a bigger collection of historical texts. The surviving 30 biographies were probably written between 293 and 330 A.D. They cover the period from Hadrian to Carinus (roughly 117-284/85). The collection is one of the most debated and controversial sources for the history of the Roman empire. The historic value of the 30 biographies is diverse, some seem to be trustworthy and offer useful information, others seem to be fiction, full of wondrous tales, anecdotes and short stories. Some tend to having been written in the tradition of the ancient novel. The obvious falsification of sources and documents rendered the entire collection suspect. The French classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, or Isaacus Casaubonus, 1559 - 1619, was the first to publish the biographies written by the otherwise unknown authors Aelianus Spartianus, Iulius Capitolinus, Aelius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio & Flavius Vopiscus, separately in 1603, under the title 'Historiae Augustae Scriptores Sex'. The first part contained the text, the second the exhaustive commentary of Casaubon. Caution about the use of the 'Historia Augusta' was already made by Casaubon. 'He revealed some of their inconsistencies and improbable statements. He used considerations of style and content to argue that the works ascribed in the manuscripts to Aelius Spartianus, Aelius Lampridius and Julius Capitolinus could more plausibly be ascribed to a single author'. (A. Grafton, 'Defenders of.
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