PIRATED ELZEVIR IN AN OXFORD BINDING
GELLIUS, Aulus [and Johann Friedrich GRONOVIUS (editor)].
Noctes atticae: editio nova et prioribus omnibus docti hominis cura multo castigtior.
Amsterdam, Jan Jansson, 1651.
12mo, pp. [48], 498, [122], [4 (blanks)]; title copper-engraved, woodcut initials and ornaments; very light dampstain to lower corners of first and final leaves, title a little duststained; a very good copy in contemporary Oxford speckled calf, boards and spine filleted in blind, gilt red morocco lettering-piece, edges speckled red, sewn on 3 leather thongs; slightly rubbed at extremities, front free endpaper renewed; modern private collector’s bookplate to upper pastedown.
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Noctes atticae: editio nova et prioribus omnibus docti hominis cura multo castigtior.
Jansson’s piracy of Gronovius’s version, published the same year as the first edition. A commonplace book compiled by Aulus Gellius in the second century, the Attic Nights received several editions, of which the most highly regarded is that of Johann Friedrich Gronovius (1611–1671), the then Professor of Greek at Leiden. Gronovius’s text was commissioned by Louis Elzevir and published by him, though with neither the editor’s name nor notes, in 1651; Jansson’s edition appeared in the same year, closely copying Elzevir’s engraved title and typesetting to capitalise on the widespread demand (evidently from as far as Oxford) for his elegant and carefully edited duodecimo editions.
Cf. Willems 1127, Berghman 2065, and Copinger 1821.
