P. Rutilii Lupi De figuris sententiarum et elocutionis libri duo. Recensuit et annotationes adjecit David Ruhnkenius. Accedunt Aquilae Romani et Julii Rufiniani de eodem argumento liber.

Leiden (Lugdini Batavorum), Apud Samuelem et Joannem Luchtmans, 1768. 8vo. C,276,(15 index),(1 blank) p. Calf 20 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 238551075; Schweiger 2,859: 'Neue Recension. (...) Vorauf geht eine gehaltreiche historia critica oratorum graecorum'; Ebert 19633; Graesse 6/1,196; Spoelder p. 590, Haarlem 3) (Details: Prize copy, without the prize. Back divided with gilt fillets. Red shield on the 'second compartment'. Boards with gilt borders and gilt coat of arms of Haarlem. This title book contains, after the preface, in which Ruhnken has collected everything known with regard to Rutilius Lupus, an informative 'Historia critica oratorum graecorum' of 65 p. The commentary of Ruhnken to the text is extensive) (Condition: Prize gone. Binding slightly scuffed. Right edge of red shield damaged. Surface of the upper board somewhat chafed; all 4 green textile fastening ties gone. Faint and small stamp on the title) (Note: 'De figuris sententiarum et elocutionis' (On the figures of speech), a rhetorical treatise of the Roman rhetor Publius Rutilius Lupus, first century A.D., is originally an abridgment of 'peri schêmatôn', a work of the Greek orator Gorgias of Athens, who must not be confused with the famous Gorgias of Leontini, the contemporary of Socrates. This Gorgias of Athens is also known as the rhetor who taught Cicero's son Marcus at Athens in 44 B.C. (Cic. Fam. 16,21,6) The chief value of the treatise lies in the numerous renderings of abstracts, and translations of striking passages from the Greek orators, thus preserving much what is otherwise lost. Already in the 'editio princeps' of 1519 it was printed together with 'De figuris' of Aquila Romanus. The first half of this 1768 edition of Ruhnken contains the text of Rutilius Lupus, the second half the 'De figuris sententiarum et elocutionis liber' of the Latin grammarian Aquila Romanus, who flourished in the second half of the 3rd century A.D. He recommends Demosthenes and Cicero as models, but he takes his examples almost exclusively from Cicero. The dates of the Latin rhetorician Julius Rufinianus are uncertain. He produced a kind of supplementary treatise, augmented with material from other sources. Both took their material from a lost work of the Greek rhetorican Alexander Numenius, 2nd cent. B.C. These 3 works were edited with commentary by the Dutch scholar of German origin David Ruhnkenius, or David Ruhnken, 1723-1798. In 1757 he was appointed at the University of Leyden to assist professor Tiberius Hemsterhuis as Reader in Greek, and in 1761 he succeeded to the Latin chair vacated by Oudendorp. The great classical scholar U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1848-1931, calls him the 'Princeps criticorum'. The German scholar F.A. Wolf, 1758-1824, dedicated his famous 'Prolegomena' of 1795 to him. 'Alles was Ruhnken veröffentlicht hat, ist in seinen Grenzen tadellos. So der homerische Demeterhymnus (...), das Lexicon des Timaeus, Rutilius Lupus mit einer Historia critica oratorum Graecorum, die für die hellenistische Zeit nützliche Notizen zusammenträgt'. (U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 'Geschichte der Philologie', Leipzig/Berlin, 1921, p.39/40) (Provenance: The stamp on the title: 'J.S. van Veen'. This is the Dutch historian Jacobus Simon van Veen, 1858-1934. (See for a biographic sketch and a portrait: C.C. van der Woude, 'Dr. Jacobus Simon van Veen, 12 januari 1858 - 11 oktober 1934', in 'Honderd jaar Gelre', Hilversum 1997, p. 101/107)) (Collation: *-6*8, 7*2; A-S8, T2 (leaf T2 verso blank) (Photographs on request)