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Rare 1527 edition of classical dictionary, owned by the neo-Latin poet Renier Tengnagel (d. 1565)

TORRENTINUS, Hermannus (Herman van der BEKE).
Elucidarius poeticus co[n]tinens historias poeticas, fabulas, insulas regiones, urbes, fluvios, mo[n]tesq[ue] insigniores, atq[ue] huiusmodi alia, ...
Antwerp, Michiel Hillen van Hoogstraten, 1527. With the title in an elaborate woodcut border.
With: (2) [FIOCCHI, Andrea Dominico (Andras Dominicus FLOCCUS)] under the name of Lucius FENESTELLA. De magistratibus, sacerdotiisq[ue] Romanorum libellus, iamprimum nitori restitutus.
[Cologne, Hero Fuchs, 1527]. With the title in a finely cut 4-piece woodcut border. 2 editions in 1 volume. 8vo. 16th-century(?) limp vellum (formerly used for a slightly thinner book). The binding is an interesting example of a spine reinforced with a horizontal metal rod at the central sewing support to give more support and prevent the bookblock from becoming concaved or developing sharp kinks; probably bound in Flanders. [88]; [88] ll.
€ 9,500
Ad 1: Extremely rare third Antwerp edition of a well known Latin dictionary of classical antiquity by Hermannus Torrentinus, covering people, Gods, topographic names, etc., taken mostly from classical literature and arranged in alphabetical order. Pafraet published the first edition at Deventer in 1498 as Elucidarius carminum et historiarum vel vocabularius poeticus. The book went through about 70 editions in 50 years, making it one of the most popular reference works of its time and certainly the most important classical dictionary. Torrentinus (d. ca.1520) was born in Zwolle, studied under Alexander Hegius at Deventer, joined the Brethren of the Common Life and taught at Groningen and Zwolle. He wrote several small books for use by his students, featuring texts by Virgil and Sabellico. Only two other copies of the present edition are known.
Ad 2: First Cologne edition of a Latin account of classical Roman priests and magistrates by the Florentine Andreas Dominicus Floccus (d. 1452), writing under the name of the Roman historian Lucius Fenestella (49 B.C. - 21 A.D.). Almost 40 editions appeared over a century. The present edition includes three shorter works on the same subject by Pomponius Laetus. The final work is a useful list of Latin initials and abbreviations used in classical antiquity, with their meaning, by the late 1st century AD grammarian Valerius Probus.
The Torrentius is bound after the Fiocchi. With the flourished signature of Reinier Tengnagel (d. 1565) on the first fly-leaf and his motto "Post tenebras spero lucem" on the facing parchment endleaf. Tengnagel succeeded Gabriel Mudeus as professor of law at the University of Louvain in 1546. As a neo-Latin poet he probably made extensive use of Torrentinus's classical dictionary. With extensive marginal manuscript notes on 3 pp. of the Torrentinus, one covered with 2 slips of paper, and a few shorter notes in the Foicchi. With a browned patch in the last leaves of the Torrentinus and an occasional minor marginal defect, but still in good condition. With some chips and stains in the vellum and 2 of the supports broken at the front hinge. Ad 1: Netherlandish books 29537 (2 copies); NK 3968 (1 of same 2 copies); USTC 437361 (same 2 copies); ad 2: VD16, F 1643 (5 copies); USTC 671346 (same 5 copies); for the binding: W.K. Gnirrep & J.A. Szirmai, "Spines reinforced with metal rods in sixteenth-century limp parchment bindings", in: Quaerendo XIX (1989), pp. 117-140.
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