Volume one only (of 2, but complete in itself) of an edition of Homer's collected works published by the Dutch bookseller Johannes van Ravesteyn (1618-1681), comprising the Greek text of the Iliad with a Latin translation on the opposite pages, edited by the French printer and classical scholar Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne, ca. 1528-1598). The text is reprinted after the edition which was published by Estienne in 1589 in Geneva, including his preface to the reader, his letter to the dedicatee Karl von Zerotin (1564-1636) and his preface to Homer. The Latin translation was made by the Greek-Italian humanist and classical scholar Franciscus Portus (1511-1581).
This volume was in the former possession of Pieter Nuyts (who purchased it in 1650, the year of publication), a Dutch explorer and diplomat who was employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Nuyts was born in 1598 in Middelburg and studied philosophy at the University of Leiden. In 1626 he went to Java and visited on the way Australia, exploring and mapping for the first time the southern coast of Western Australia of which a part was named after him (including a group of islands, the Nuyts Archipelago). He was appointed both governor of Formosa (Taiwan) and ambassador to Japan in 1627, but became a controversial figure due to his private misbehaviour and disastrous handling of official duties. In 1637, Nuyts returned to the Low Countries and settled in Zeelandic Flanders. He was appointed mayor in Hulst where he died in 1655.
Provenance: With the manuscript ownership entry in black ink by the Dutch explorer and diplomat Pieter Nuyts (1598-1655) on verso of the second free endpaper, with his motto "Age nunc quod moritur[us] ages" (Act now for you are about to die), signed "P: Nuijts" and dated "1650". First free endpaper missing, small portion of the lower blank corner of the preliminary leaf *4 torn off, occasionally slightly stained, small waterstain in upper blank margin. Otherwise in good condition. Brunet III, col. 272; Graesse III, p. 328 (note); cf. Howgego N46 (on Pieter Nuyts); Schreiber, The Estiennes, no. 218 (edition of 1589); not in Dibdin.