Hymni (cum suis scholiis Græcis) & Epigrammata.
[Geneva], H. II Estienne 1577.
4to. (251 x 170 mm.). [xvi], 72, 134, [2 blank]p. Large Greek type for text, smaller for scholia, roman for preface, footnotes & translations, a small Estienne title device.
18th-century mottled calf, gilt spine with gilt-lettered label, edges sprinkled red.
Nicodemus Frischlin (1557-90) and Henri II Estienne (1531-98) edited the text, which includes the editio princeps of some of the epigrams and fragments. Callimachus was a librarian at Alexandria and the most influential poet of the Hellenistic era. Despite his popularity, nearly all his writings were lost in the Middle Ages. A single Byzantine manuscript transmitted his hymns, which reached print in 1496, but fragments of his other works survive through quotation or translation by other authors and, more recently, in papyri unearthed in Egypt. Estienne’s effort to identify the remains of Callimachus’ once large corpus, which he compares to salvaging a shipwreck, was not surpassed until the pioneering work of Richard Bentley at the end of the following century.
The text here includes the six hymns with their ancient scholia, the Roman poet Catullus’ translation of the end of the Aetia known as The Lock of Berenike, thirty-one epigrams culled from other works by Frischlin and further fragments identified by Estienne. Callimachus’ poetry is accompanied by a biography in Greek by Frischlin, as well as his and Estienne’s commentaries on the hymns. Frischlin’s translations into both prose and verse, with additional translations (both literal and loose) of individual hymns by other humanists including Estienne and Poliziano, round out the volume. Frischlin was a brilliant philologist and playwright who died escaping from prison. He sent a manuscript of his work on Callimachus to Estienne around 1573, and the scholar-publisher used it as the basis of this collaborative edition. Good condition (some foxing and browning), from the library of the Earls of Macclesfield (blind stamp, North Library bookplate).
¶Schreiber, Μουσων Δωρα. Greek Language and Literature 32; Wilhelmi & Seck, Nikodemus Frischlin...Bibliographie 24; Renouard, Annales de l’imprimerie des Estienne 145,3; Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesammten Litteratur der Griechen I: 428; GLN-2617.
Price: $2,200.00