EURIPIDOU PHOINISSAI. Euripidis tragoedia Phoenissae. Interpretationem addidit H. Grotii; Graeca castigavit e Mstis, atque adnotationibus instruxit, scholia, partim nunc primum evulgata, subiecit Ludovicus Casp. Valckenaer.

Franeker (Franequerae), Typis et sumptibus, Iacobi Brouwer, 1755. 4to. XXIV,831,(19 index) p. Half calf 22.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 151473129; Hoffmann 2,76/77; Schweiger I,119; Brunet 2,1106; Dibdin I,545; Moss 1,424; Graesse 2,523: 'édition excellente'; Ebert 7102) (Details: Back with 5 raised bands, and a brown morocco lettershield; margins uncut. § Greek text with facing Latin translation, commentary in two columns on the lower half of the page; p. 561-815 contain the scholia to the 'Phoenissae', accompanied by Latin commentary; at the end 14 p. 'Prolegomena' to the 'Phoenissae' by Hugo Grotius) (Condition: Back rubbed; head of spine slightly chafed; paper on covers somewhat scuffed) (Note: 'With Sophokles Greek tragedy reaches its culmination. Euripides, great poet though he was, represents the first symptom of the inevitable decline, for in him we can recognize a certain impatience with the form he found ready to his hand'. This is how H.J. Rose started his chapter on the Greek tragedian Euripides, ca. 480-406 B.C., some 80 years ago. (H.J. Rose, 'A history of Greek literature', 4th ed., London 1965, p. 177, first published in 1934) That opinion has now been superseded. Euripides' play 'The Bacchae', which drew little attention before 1900, 'has come to seem one of the defining models of Greek tragedy and even of tragedy itself, rivalling Aeschylus' Oresteia and Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambridge Mass. 2010, p. 347) For this, Euripides has to thank the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The upsurge was caused by his 'Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik' (1872) in which he drew attention to the idea of 'the Dionysiac', a key element in the Bacchae. This idea 'has had a massive influence not only on understandings of tragedy, but on theories of theatrical performances itself'. (Idem, ibidem) § Euripides' play Phoenissae 'is a complex but well-organized dramatic structure. It does not concentrate solely on the strife and death of the sons of Oedipus, as the play's severest critics expected and demanded that it should. Rather, it engages a whole ensemble of figures from the families of Oedipus and Creon in exploring themes of selfishness and blindness, familial disaster, familial loyalty, political duties and loyalties, divine-human interaction, and the lability of human wisdom'. (D.J. Mastronarde, 'Phoenissae', Cambridge 1994, p. 3/4) § 'Of all the editions of the Phoenissae, in reference to critical apparatus, the present (of 1755) is the most copious and valuable. The version is that of Grotius. MSS. have been consulted; annotations are subjoined. The scholia (of which part appears for the first time) added; and the whole volume is enriched by every thing which can render it most acceptable to a critical student. (...) a volume, on all accounts, deserving of strong recommendation'. (Dibdin) § The Frisian scholar Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer, latinized Ludovicus Casparus Valckenarius, 1715-1785, was a pupil of his Tiberius Hemsterhuis, a Frisian too, and after him the greatest Dutch classical scholar of the 18th century. Hemsterhuis was professor of Greek at the University of Franeker from 1717 till 1740, and from 1740 till 1765 at the University of Leiden. Hemsterhuis was the founder of a Dutch school of criticism, the so-called 'Schola Hemsterhusiana', which had in Valckenaer its best known disciple. Valckenaer studied Greek in Franeker under Hemsterhuis, and succeeded to his chair in 1741. In 1765 he left for Leiden, once again as successor of his beloved teacher. Both created a golden age of Greek studies in the Netherlands. Still a student he edited a Greek lexicon of the grammarian Ammonius, 'De adfinium vocabulorum Differentia', Leiden 1739. In Franeker he produced a revised and augmented edition of Fulvio Orsini's 'Virgilius illustratus', Leeuwarden 1747. This title is important for the history of scholarship for its inclusion of the text of the 22nd book of the Iliad of Homer, accompanied by an introduction, 'variae lectiones' and the 'editio princeps' of scholia of Porphyrius and other hellenistic and byzantine scholars. In 1755 Valckenaer published this Phoenissae edition, with his rich commentary, and a Latin translation by Hugo Grotius. Among his best works are two other Euripides editions, 'Diatribe in Euripidis perditorum dramatum reliquias', Leiden 1767, and 'Euripidis tragoedia Hippolytus', Leiden 1768. Valckenaer also produced editions of the Idylls of Theocritus, Leiden 1773, and of the complete works of bucolic poets Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Leiden & Kampen 1779. His Callimachus was published posthumously by J. Luzac, in Leiden, in 1799) (Provenance: On the front flyleaf: 'J.P. Ott, 1825'. (Collation: pi2, *-2*4; 3*2, A-4D4, 4E2, 4F-5P4 (minus blank leaf 5P4)) (Photographs on request)