Jean Sirmond’s Copy
GULIELMUS, Janus.
Iani GulielmI Plautinarum quaestionum commentarius. In quo omnes ordine M. Plauti Comoediae, tum multa veterum scriptorum, poetarum inprimis, et M. Tullii loca varie illustrantur, corriguntur, augentur.
Paris, Gilles Beys, 1583.
8vo, pp. [32], 324, [10], [2 (blank)]; woodcut printer’s device to title, initials and head-pieces; light damp staining to first quire, some foxing and toning; overall very good in 18th-century polished calf, spine richly gilt in compartments with red morocco lettering-piece, red edges, marbled endpapers, green silk place marker; a little wear to spine and corners, light marks to covers; ink inscription at head of title (slightly cropped) ‘Ex bibliotheca Jo. Desirmonds’, two further signatures by him (crossed through) to title and another to p. 324 (see below), 18th-century inscription ‘Lenain’ also to title.
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Iani GulielmI Plautinarum quaestionum commentarius. In quo omnes ordine M. Plauti Comoediae, tum multa veterum scriptorum, poetarum inprimis, et M. Tullii loca varie illustrantur, corriguntur, augentur.
First edition of an important work of Plautine and Ciceronian scholarship by the renowned German philologist and poet Janus Gulielmus (1555–1584), formerly in the possession of the French neo-Latin poet Jean Sirmond (1589–1649).
A native of Lübeck, Gulielmus (or Wilhelms) studied at the universities of Rostock and Cologne, establishing his reputation as a textual critic with his Verisimilium libri tres, published at Antwerp by Christophe Plantin in 1582. The Plautinarum quaestionum commentarius, his second major work, resulted from an extended stay in Paris, and ‘contains the fortunate improvement of a large number of passages from Plautus and also important critical contributions to Terence and many other writers, especially Cicero’ (Deutsche Biographie, trans.). It was published in Paris by Gilles Beys, Plantin’s colleague and son-in-law.
Provenance: author of Latin poetry and historiographer to Louis XIII, Jean Sirmond was one of the first members of the Académie française and helped draft its statutes.
BM STC French 1470-1600, p. 213; USTC 170689.
