Greek Language, Literature & Coinage

Havercamp, Sigebert. SYLLOGE SCRIPTORUM, QUI DE LINGUAE GRAECAE VERA & RECTA PRONUNTIATIONE COMMENTARIOS RELIQUERUNT, VIDELICET, ADOLPHI MEKERCHI, THEODORI BEZAE, JACOBI CERATINI, & HENRICI STEPHANI. QUIBUS ACCEDUNT SIGEBERTI HAVERCAMPI DISSERTATIO DE LITERATUM GRAECARUM VARIA, IN ANTIQUIS PRAESERTIM NUMMIS & MARMORIBUS, SCRIPTURA & FORMA, ET ANTIQUISSIMA QUÆDAM NUMISMATA GRAECA, NUMERO QUADRAGINTA NOVEM, MAGNAM PARTEM INEDITA. Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden): Apud Gerardum Potuliet, 1736. 8vo, contemporary vellum; tan morocco spine label, gilt; page edges mottled red. (16), 476, (16) pages; title printed in red and black; woodcut headpieces, tailpiece and initials; 10 engraved plates, all but the last depicting ancient Greek coins, included in the pagination; finely engraved folding plate. Joints a bit weak, with some signs of minor worming. Very good or better. Very rare, with Dekesel citing only a single copy. Scholarly commentary on the Greek language and literature, bolstered by an illustrated discussion of ancient Greek coinage including descriptions of a number of previously unpublished coins. Sigebert Havercamp (1684–1741) was professor of Greek at Leiden and a well-known classicist, orator and antiquarian, who published an edition of Josephus in 1726. He published a treatise on the coinage of Alexander the Great in 1722, edited Paruta & Augustini’s monumental 1723 work on Sicily, provided the commentary for Andre Morell’s 1734 Thesaurus Morellianus, and catalogued the important collection of Queen Christina of Sweden (published in 1742, shortly after his death). Dekesel H132. From the library of Spanish diplomat José Nicolás de Azara y Perera, 1st Marquis of Nibbiano (1730–1804), with his ink stamp on the dedication leaf; ex Frederic Rowland Marvin Library, with his bookplate.