First edition of Alexander Julius important pedagogical commentary on the Psalms of David as rendered into classical Latin verse by George Buchanan (1506-1582). Buchanans celebrated Psalmorum Davidis paraphrasis poetica, first published in 1565/66, transformed the Hebrew Psalter into polished classical Latin metres, adapting biblical poetry to the idiom of Horace and Virgil. Conceived as both devotional literature and rhetorical exercise, the work became one of the most widely used Neo-Latin school texts in Europe.
Buchanan was one of the leading intellectual figures of 16th-century Europe: tutor to Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) and later to James VI (1566-1625), an internationally celebrated Latin poet, and an influential historian and political thinker. His contemporaries hailed him as the foremost poet of his age.
The text from Buchanan is printed in italics, whereas the elaborate notes, printed in roman type, take the form of printed glosses surrounding the text. The work proved influential, it was reprinted in Edinburgh in 1699 and mined by later editors for pedagogical purposes.
With the bookplate of the Library of the Monastery of St. Michael of Belmont, near Hereford, mounted on the front pastedown, a manuscript annotation on the verso of the final blank leaf, now largely illegible. The binding shows some rubbing, and one clasp is missing, some damp staining and browning throughout. Otherwise in good condition. Durkan, p. 110, no. 117; ESTC S106068; McFarlane p. 502, no. 91; Pollard and Redgrave, STC no. 3989; USTC 3009430.