Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Commentarii linguae Graecae, Gulielmo Budaeo, consiliario Regio, supplicúmque libelloru[m] in Regia magistro, auctore. Ab eodem accuratè recogniti, atque amplius tertia parte aucti [FROM THE PERSONAL LIBRARY OF JOHANN GOTTFRIED SCHWEIGHÄUSER*]

Budaeo, Gulielmo (Guillaume Budé)

Parisii (Paris): Ex officina Roberti Stephani typographi Regii (Robert Estienne), 1548. Second edition completely revised and greatly expanded. Hardcover. Folio (13 3/4 x 10"). 1109, [1], [42]pp. (Signature: a-z8, A-Z8, Aa-Zz8, Aaa-Ccc8). Contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over wooden panels. Raised bands. Early 19th-century gold-lettered leather title label to spine. Professor Johann Gottfried Schweighäuser's Ex-libris on inside of front cover. Robert Estienne's device to title page depicting a man standing under an olive-tree, with grafts from which wild branches falling to the ground, and with the words of Romans 11:20, "Noli altum sapere" ("Be not arrogant"). Decorative woodcut initials.

First Robert Estienne edition of this important work by the most influential of the French humanist scholars of the early 16th century. The book was instrumental in spreading the study of Greek throughout France.

The first edition was originally published in 1529, but this definitive edition is enlarged by more than one-third from notes left by Guillaume Budé, one of the greatest Renaissance contributors to the study of Greek antiquity.

Indeed, Budé's "Commentarii" formed the basis for the study of the Greek language in France, and served as the basis of Henri Estienne's "Thesaurus Graecae linguae" (Schreiber). For more information, see: Schreiber 100. Renouard 71, no. 7. Adams B3096. PMM no. 60 (1529 ed.).

Binding partly darkened, rubbed and age-toned. Front cover warped. First half of pages with minor age-toning along margin. Minor to moderate age-toning throughout second half of pages. Clear water-staining at upper corner of pages 775 to 1002 (not affecting lettering). Text in Latin and Greek. Binding in overall good-, interior in good+ to very good condition. g- to vg. Item #43236

About the publisher: Robert Estienne (1503-1559) was a 16th-century printer and classical scholar in Paris. He was a former Catholic who became a Protestant late in his life and the first to print the Bible divided into standard numbered verses (from Wikipedia).

*Johann Gottfried Schweighäuser (1776-1844) was a renown French philologist and archaeologist who, in 1812, became a professor at the Protestant seminary in Strasbourg. In 1822, he became a correspondent member of the "Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres." (From Wikipedia).

Price: $1,000.00