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Rare original edition of the first numismatic work in which the philological methods of textual criticism are fully applied

GRONOVIUS, Johannes Fredericus.
De sestertiis commentarius. In quo post maximos viros, inprimis Budaeum, Agricolam, Hotmannum, Ciacconium, Scaligerum, res nummaria veterum hac parte illustratur: & Varro, Cicero, Caesar, Livius Seneca, aliique optimi auctores, nec non jurisconsulti in Digestis, compluribus locis aut corruptis emendantur aut male intellectis explanatur.

Deventer, Conrad Thomaeus, 1643. 8vo. Contemporary overlapping vellum, title written on spine. With printer's device on title. (16), 135 pp.

Rare first edition of this most important, fundamental, innovative and scholarly numismatical work on the money and monetary system of the Roman empire by Johannes Fredericus Gronovius (1611-1671). It is the first numismatic, even antiquarian work in which the philological methods of textual criticism are fully applied, leading to surprising and unsuspected results: "Epochmachende Arbeit über das Geldwesen der Alten, in der zum ersten Mal Grammatik und Kritik für antiquarische Forschungen angewendet ward." (ADB IX,721). In 1656 a second edition was published by Elzevier (Willems 1201).
Johann Friedrich Gronovius (1611-1671) was a German classical scholar and critic who lived the greater part of his professional life in the Netherlands. Born in Hamburg, he studied at several universities and travelled in England, France and Italy. In 1643, he was appointed professor of rhetoric and history at Deventer, and in 1658 to the Greek chair at Leiden, where he remained until his death. In 1665, Gronovius succeeded Anthony Thysius as the sixth Librarian of Leiden University.
Gronovius edited and annotated Statius, Plautus, Livy, Tacitus, Aulus Gellius and Seneca's tragedies. In addition, he was the editor of an important edition of Hugo Grotius's De jure belli et pacis (1660), amongst numerous other works. His 'observationes' contain a number of brilliant emendations and a number of his classical editions stayed authoritative till far into the nineteenth century.

Gronovius's work was published in the same year, 1643, he arrived in Deventer. After the title (verso blank) follow the dedication to Claudius Sarravius, laudatory poems by Johannes Christenius and Nicolaus Heinsius, and Gronovius's 'Synopsis'.

The copy was presented by Johannes Loges to the well-known lawyer and philologist Robertus Keuchenius (1636-1673) who has studied in Leidien (from 1653 on), a.o. as a student of Gronovius (NNBW X, cols. 457-8): "Hunc libellum in nonquam periturae amicitiae monumentum Roberto Keuchenio amico ac familiari summo dono dedit Johannes Loges" (verso third fly-leaf).

Good copy of this presentation copy.- (Some contemporary underlinings and a few ink stains).

P. Dibon & F. Waquet, Joh. Fr. Gronovius, Pèlerin de la République des lettres: Recherches sur le voyage savant au XVIIe siècle (Hautes études médiévales et modernes, 53; Geneva 1984), p. 3 f.; Allgem. Encyl. der Wissensch. und Künste, I (1872) 193-200; Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, p. 319-321; Hoefer 22, 150; cf. Willems 1201; Graesse III, 161; Kress p. 476.

Related Subjects: 17th Century Classical Antiquity Deventer Netherlands Numismatics

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