EURIPIDOU PHOINISSAI. Euripidis tragoedia Phoenissae. Interpretationem addidit H. Grotii; graeca castigavit e Mstis, atque adnotationibus instruxit, scholia subiecit Ludovicus Casp. Valckenaer.

Leiden (Lugduni Batavorum), Apud Samuelem et Joannem Luchtmans, 1802. 4to. 2 parts in 1 volume: (IV),23,(1 blank),452;196 p. Vellum. 26 cm. Prize copy (Ref: Hoffmann 2,77; Schweiger I,119; Brunet 2,1106; Dibdin I,545; Moss 1,424; Ebert 7102) (Details: Prize copy Utrecht, but without the prize. Back gilt and with 5 raised bands. Boards with gilt borders, and the gilt coat of arms of Utrecht, within a gilt rectangle adorned with corner pieces. § The first part contains the introduction, the Greek text of Euripides' Phoenissae, with critical notes and the parallel Latin translation of Grotius, followed by the commentary of Valckenaer. The second part contains the Scholia to 'veterum grammaticorum in Euripidis Phoenissas. Ex codd. MStis praesertim Augustano, supplevit, emendavit, (...) editis locupletavit plus quam ducentis, notisque instruxit L.C. Valckenaer', accompanied by Valckenaer's commentary. At the end, before the index, the 'Scholia peri metrôn' on the Phoenissae, with notes in Latin. (p.166-182)) (Condition: Prize removed. Vellum age-tanned and slightly soiled. All four decorative fastening ribbons gone. Occasionally some pencil marginalia. The last 7 gatherings of the 2nd volume, p. 125/196, browning and foxing) (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 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Rose, 'A history of Greek literature', 4th ed., London 1965, p. 177, first published in 1934) That opinion has now been superseded.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) § This edition of 1802 is a reissue of the Phoenissae edition which was published in Franeker in 1755. The only difference seems to be that the commentary of Valckenaer is not printed below the text, but comes after the text. The publisher also decided to omit the 14 p. 'Prolegomena' to the Phoenissae by Hugo Grotius that accompanied the edition of 1755. § Dibdin observes that of all the editions of the Phoenissae, in reference to critical apparatus, the edition of 1755 was the most copious and valuable. Added are scholia, part of which appeared in 1755 for the first time. The whole volume is enriched by every thing which can render it most acceptable to a critical student. The preface is full of learned information, Dibdin adds. § The Frisian scholar Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer, latinized Ludovicus Casparus Valckenarius, 1715-1785, was a pupil of 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 edition was published posthumously by J. Luzac, Leiden 1799) (Collation: pi2, *-3*4 (leaf 3*4 verso blank); A-Kkk4, Lll2; A2, B-Bb4) (Photographs on request)