Caii Suetonii Tranquilli Opera quae exstant. Carolus Patinus, doctor Medicus Parisiensis, notis & numismatibus illustravit, suisque sumptibus edidit. by SUETONIUS

Basel (Basileae), (Typis Genathianis), 1675. 4to. (XVIII, including frontispiece),472,(16 index)(1 colophon)(1 blank) p., 1 folding table, 1 engraved plate, engraved text illustrations. Overlapping vellum 24 cm (Ref: VD17 39:132965D; Schweiger 2,978; Dibdin 2,441,2; Ebert 21927; Moss 2,632; Fabricius/Ernesti 2,459; Graesse 6/1,523) (Details: 6 thongs laced through the joints. Engraved frontispiece by F. Chauneau, it depicts a seated Athena who points at a bust of Suetonius. Engraved printer's mark on the title: a lunar eclipse, a moon escaping from the shadow of the earth into the light of the sun, with the motto: 'patitur nec dissolvitur'. After the preliminary leaves a folding table with the genealogies of the emperors. Hundreds of engraved coins and medals in the text. 14 big engraved headpieces with many murder scenes. 1 plate depicting Alexander and his mother from a gem from the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden. 1 text engraving of 2 bathing men. Woodcut initials. At the end a leaf with a printer's mark, with the text: 'Basileae MDCLXXV, typis Genathianis') (Condition: Good copy, with the very slightest of wear to the extremities; the vellum is somewhat soiled and spotted. Some browning gatherings. A hardly visible pinpoint wormhole at the very top in the gutter of the last half of the book) (Note: The Roman historian Suetonius, born c. 69 A.D, was appointed to the secretarial posts of 'a studiis', 'a bibliothecis', and 'ab epistulis' of the palace administration. 'De vita Caesarum' gives the biographies of 12 emperors, from Caesar to Domitian. Beyond simplicity he has no stylistic pretentions. He quotes verbatim from documents he knew, and shows critical ability. 'The great number of scurrilous anecdotes in most of the lives may be due to the nature of his sources'. (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 1020/1). § Carolus Patinus, or Charles Patin, 1633-1693, saw the destruction of his career at the university of Paris, by intrigues and denunciation, because he distributed forbidden books. In 1676 the Frenchman was appointed professor of philosophy at the university of Padua, and later of medicin and surgery. He made his fame however with his books on numismatics, and became a well known authority upon the subject of coins and medals. He published in 1665 'Introduction à l'histoire par la connaissance des médailles', and published on Roman families and emperors on coins and medals. He must have possessed a collection of his own, because in Amsterdam in 1672 was published on his own expense his 'Thesaurus numismatum e Museo Caroli Patini'. (Handbuch Gelehrtenkultur der frühen Neuzeit, Berlin 2004, vol. 1, p. 497/8) Patin must have been a wealthy man, because this Suetonius, which seems to be a 'spin off' of his great knowledge of imperial coins, was also printed on his own expense. The German/Dutch classical scholar Johannes Georgius Graevius inserted the entire commentary of Patin into his Suetonius edition of 1703. Patin, who lived in exile, used his own private printer's mark. It was also used in other publications of Patin, for example the above mentioned 'Thesaurus' of 1672. His private printer's mark seems to indicate his irrepressibility. The text is preceded by a dedicatio to Queen Christina of Sweden, in which he thanks her for her generosity and humanity ('munificentia' and 'humanitas'). In VD17 we found that there have been produced 3 different versions of this edition. Two (VD17 75:697165N & VD17 14:624464L) have after the indexes and the colophon at the end, 15 extra leaves with an added 'index verborum et rerum'. Our copy, the third version (VD17 39:132965D) lacks this added index. To complicate matters, the first 2 issues have 9 preliminary leaves and the third one should have 10 according to VD17. Our copy has however (just like the first two issues) 9 preliminary leaves, while absolutely nothing seems to be missing) (Provenance: On front flyleaf in old ink: ' Ktêma Joh. Jacobi Harderi Phi..., Med.D., Symb., Ho bios brachus hê de technê makrê', the beginning of a well known Hippocratic aphorism. Johann Jacob Harder, born in Basel in 1656, was a physician and researcher of natural history. Harder was appointed professor of Rhetoric at the University of Basel in 1678 and in 1686/7 professor of Physics and Anatomy. He 'nimmt unter den deutschen Anatomen seiner Zeit einen sehr ehrenvollen Platz ein'. He must have been the first owner of this book. He died in 1711. (ADB 10, 591/2) Harder probably knew his colleague Patin who was a professor at the University of Padua personally. In 1683 Harder was appointed a member of the 'Academia dei Ricovrati' in Padua. § On the flyleaf also the name of 'Andreae Zuingeri, 1745'. After the death of Harder the book remained in Basel. Not much is known about the next owner Andreas Zwinger, 1697-1764. He was a pastor of the St. Leonard church in Basel, and professor of theology. He wrote 'Die grosse Glückseligkeit der Christen vor der Heiden', published in 1759) (Collation: pi1, )(-2)(4; folding table; A-2P4, 2Q2; plate after leaf O1; the leaves 2I2 and 2I4 are cancels) (Photographs on request)