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Leiden, Ex officinâ Elzeviriana, 1618. 4to. (26),+ 80,+ (2),+ 81-192,+ (2),+ 193-443,+ (3),+ 445-539,+ (3),+ 541-636,+ (2) pp. Minor spotting, red ink underlining on p. 257 and 423, a small tear on p. 383 with slight loss of text. Contemporary vellum, spine with handwritten title in ink. Owner?s signature on front fly leaf. USTC 1028189. Willems 148. Berghman 1288. Ter Meulen 283. Large paper copy with part titles preserved. First edition, printed by Isaac Elzevir, of the Dutch philologist, lawyer and diplomat Jan Rutgers? (1589-1625) main philological work, with a printed dedication to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (Gustav II Adolf). Rutgers studied in his youth under Gerhard Johann Vossius and was in 1605 sent to Leiden to study philology under J. J. Scaliger and Daniel Heinsius and in 1611 to France, where he also managed to take a law degree. He returned to Holland in 1613 to enter the legal profession but came into contact with the Swedish ambassador to the States General Jacob van Dijck. van Dijck was entrusted with the task of finding staff for the growing Swedish administration and he suggested that Rutgers should follow him to Sweden. In Sweden Rutgers was appointed court councillor by Gustavus Adolphus in 1614 and most of his time was going to be spent as a diplomat, and he played a central role in Swedish foreign politics in this crucial period. He was used as Swedish representative in the Dutch Republic on several occaisons and as an emissary to the North German princes. His most dramatic mission was that to Prague in 1620, from where he reported in a series of letters on the Bohemian adventure of Elector Palatine Frederick V. His correspondance with the Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna has recently been published.?Variarum lectionum libri sex? contains his lectures and comments on several classical authors both Greek and Latin. It also includes a poem by Hugo Grotius to Rutgers. His work on Horace ?Lectiones Venusinae? was not published until 1699 and his ?Glossarium graecum ad Oppianum? in 1719. His poems were published by Nicolas Heinsius in 1653 together with an autobiograhy written in 1625.
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