An Encyclopedic Achievement
POLLUX, Julius.
Ονομαστικον εν βιβλιοις δεκα … Onomasticum Graece & Latine. Post egregiam illam Wolfgangi Seberi editionem denuo immane quantum emendatum, suppletum, & illustratum … Amsterdam, Wetstein, 1706.
Two vols, folio, pp. I: [iv], 683, [1 (blank)], II: [2], 687–1388, [16 (index)], 178, [10 (addenda)], with engraved frontispiece and engraved title to vol. I; text printed in Greek and Latin in parallel columns, title printed in red and black with woodcut of a crown, woodcut initials; bound in contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments with gilt red morocco lettering-pieces, edges stained red, marbled endpapers, green silk page-markers; very slightly rubbed, but an excellent set.
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Ονομαστικον εν βιβλιοις δεκα … Onomasticum Graece & Latine. Post egregiam illam Wolfgangi Seberi editionem denuo immane quantum emendatum, suppletum, & illustratum …
A crisp copy of Pollux’s second-century encyclopaedia of Greek, from the library of the Scottish mathematician James Stirling.
Pollux arranged the entries in his Book of Words thematically rather than alphabetically and, while the focus is on the vocabulary, his commentary and opinion on entries and their sources provides us with valuable information about the Greek world. It was first printed by Aldus Manutius in 1502, without any supporting material.
This substantial edition builds on various earlier editions and textual recensions, in particular Wolfgang Seber’s edition of 1608, with contributions from Gottfried Jungermann (1577–1610) and Joachim Kühn (1647–1697), all drawn together by Johann Heinrich Lederlin of Strasbourg (1672–1737) and the young Tiberius Hemsterhuis (1685–1766), professor of philosophy and mathematics at Amsterdam; he would later become professor of Greek in Franeker and then Leiden. This was Hemsterhuis’s first publication.
The text is here prefaced by a striking allegorical engraved title and an engraved frontispiece with the arms of Amsterdam and a large triumphal arch with the Stadhuis op de Dam behind.
Provenance:
From the library of James Stirling (1692–1770), recently dispersed, albeit with no marks of provenance. Nicknamed ‘the Venetian’ for his time spent in Italy between 1717 and ’19, he is perhaps best known for his Methodus differentialis (1730) and for proving the correctness of Newton’s classification of cubic plane curves. He is also the namesake of Stirling’s approximation, Stirling numbers, and Stirling permutations. It was Newton who proposed Stirling for a fellowship of the Royal Society.
STCN 215165144.