Trans John Cheke (1 results)
More imagesPolyaeni stratagematum libri octo. Is. Casaubonus Græcè nunc primùm edidit, emendauit, & Notis illustrauit. Adiecta est etiam Iusti Vulteij Latina versio. Cum indicibus necessariis BOUND WITH Leonis Imperatoris de bellico apparatu liber, è Graeco in Latinum conuersus, Ioann. Checo Cantabrigiensi Interp. Accessit libellus Modesti de vocabulis rei Militaris ad Tacitum Augustum
Polyaenus, ed. Isaac Casaubon, trans. Justus Vulteius and Leo VI, Byzantine Emperor; trans. John Cheke
Published by Jean de Tournes, Geneva, 1589
- Hardcover
- First Edition
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Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. THE EDITIO PRINCEPS OF THE GREAT GREEK TREATISE ON WARFARE. Polyaenus: [Geneva]: Jean de Tournes, 1589. Leo VI: Basel: Conrad Waldkirch for Lazarus Zetzner, 1595. Third edition. Sexagesimo (16mo) in 8s (4 5/8" x 3 1/8", 117mm x 78mm). [Full collation available.] Bound in contemporary stab-…bound stiff vellum with yapp edges. Authors and titles ink to the spine. All edges of the text-block sprinkled brown. A little tanning to the text-block, more pronounced in the final four quires, with some dampstaining to the lower margin. Remnants of an oval armorial book-label to the front paste-down. A near-fine copy, entirely unsophisticated. Polyaenus (fl. 163 AD) wrote the largest surviving treatise on Greek military stratagems (from the Greek strategeo, "be a general") and dedicated it to two emperors: Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Rome was in the midst of the Parthian Wars; Vologases IV had seized territory in Armenia and throughout northern Mesopotamia, and the Roman governor of Cappadocia had failed to re-establish control. Marcus Aurelius -- famed as philosopher rather than a general -- dispatched his co-emperor Lucius Verus to direct the war in person. This direct involvement of the emperor was unusual, and must surely have led Polyaenus to complete and to dedicate the work ca. 163. Born in Bithynia but of Macedonian origin, Polyaenus was a Roman citizen who wrote in Greek, which remained the administrative language of the Eastern Mediterranean. By reviewing the strategy of historical Greek generals -- but including some Romans and women in the seventh and eighth books -- he offered a direct service to the prosecution of war. The complete text of the Strategemata survives in a single manuscript (Biblia Medicea Laurentiana Plut.56.1, XIVc), although there were several Byzantine abridgements. A Latin translation by Justus Vulteius (who was Professor Hebrew at Marburg) appeared in 1549; the present work is the editio princeps -- prepared by one of the luminaries of philology, Isaac Casaubon -- with text in two columns, Greek parallel to Latin. Casaubon's edition was unrevised until Wölfflin's 1860 Teubner. Leo VI ("The Wise," 866-912; r. 886 AD) was the Byzantine Emperor -- that is, the successor of the Roman Emperors after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 395 -- and a prolific author. He like Polyaenus was Macedonian by birth; this was an important credential in the authoring of military works, since Alexander of Macedon (i.e., "The Great") had long been considered the general par excellence. Leo never fought, but nevertheless compiled the Taktika (ca. 905), a work, describing military tactics, not unlike Polyaenus'. Indeed, a great deal of the Taktika is drawn from the Stratagemata, explaining the binding of the two as a sort of "ultimate handbook" for generalship. The Taktika is here present in the translation of Sir John Cheke (1514-1557), the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge and the polestar of English Hellenism. Cheke's translation was published in 1544 and dedicated to Henry VIII, just as Polyaenus had dedicated his work to the emperors. Adams L-455 (Leo), P-1799 (Polyaenus); Brunet IV.789 [8562] (Polyaenus); VD16 L-1199 (Leo).
