ARISTOPHANOUS PLOUTOS. Aristophanis comoedia Plutus. Aiecta sunt scholia vetusta. Recognovit ad veteres membranas, variis lectionibus ac notis instruxit, et scholiastas locupletavit Tiberius Hemsterhuis.

Harlingen (Harlingae), Ex officina Volkeri van der Plaats, 1744. 8vo. (XXIV),484,(25 index),(3 blank) p. Vellum 20 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 15383420X; Hoffmann 1,260; Dibdin 1,306; Moss 1,97/98; Brunet 1,456: 'édition estimée'; Ebert 1099; Graesse 1,208) (Details: Greek text accompanied by scholia and commentary. Short title in ink on the back) (Condition: Vellum age toned and soiled. Small paper label pasted on the back. Front joint partly split. Paper yellowing. Pinpoint wormhole in the lower part of the first 130 p., sometimes nibbling at a letter) (Note: Of the Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, ca. 455-385 BC, born in the radical democracy of Athens, survive 11 plays. In a less free society his genre became obsolete in his own time, and was later replaced by the harmless plays of Menander. 'Aristophanes' comic mode- a dramatic free form with an almost improvisational feel, great poetic and linguistic inventiveness, highly topical satire (public figures being named and personated on stage), and obscenity, beyond almost any subsequent standard of acceptability'- never again became a major theatrical tradition'. (The classical tradition, Cambridge Mass., 2010, p. 69) This opinion seems outdated. Aristophanes sounds very much like modern satyric comedy. The 2nd edition of the OCD, 40 years older, sounds more sympathetic: 'He had a keen eye and ear for the absurd, and the pompous; his favoured media are parody, satire, and exaggeration to the point of phantasy, and his favourite targets are men prominent in politics, contemporary poets, musicians, scientists and philosophers'. (OCD 2nd ed. p. 113) § Serious scholarly work on the text of Aristophanes begins in the 16th century, with Petrus Victorius, J.J. Scaliger and his friend Willem Canter. This edition of Aristophanes play Plutus of 1744 was produced by the Dutch classical scholar Tiberius Hemsterhuis, 1685-1766, who at 19 became professor at the Athenaeum of Amsterdam. In 1705 Hemsterhuis was promoted to a professorship in Harderwijk, and in 1717 he was appointed professor of Greek at the University of Franeker. In 1740 he was finally called to Leiden. Hemsterhuis' Plutus edition, a play in which the god of wealth is cured of his blindness, and the remarkable social consequences of his new discrimination are exemplified, is 'one of the most accurate and critical editions of a Greek writer, ever published. It contains the genuine ancient Scholia, and the notes are every way worthy of the high reputation of Hemsterhusius. No subsequent editor has presumed on a publication of the Plutus, without consulting this masterly performance'. (Didbin) Gudeman calls the edition even 'epochemachend' (A. Gudeman, Grundriss der Geschichte der klassischen Philologie, Lpz., 1909, p. 202) Hemsterhuis himself is more modest about his 'libellus', it may be small and of little value, nevertheless it very well serves the purpose of introducing students to the treasures of Greek. ('sed peridoneus tamen, ex quo juvenes humanitatis excolendae cupidi veteres illas , atque ab ipsa velut natura profectas Atticorum elegantias percipiant'. (Preface p. V) The importance of the edition lies in the addition and treatment of the scholia. Hemsterhuis stresses that the scholia are not all the same (unius auctoris, ejusdem pretii), the student should be aware of what is old and what is recent, what is genuine and spurious, what is valuable and worthless, (ut ipsi tirones intelligerent in studiorum vestibulo, quanti sit vetusta a recentioribus, a genuinis spuria, aurea a quocumque deterioris metalli genere secerni'. (Preface p. XII) (J.G. Gerretzen,'Schola Hemsterhusiana', Nijmegen/Utrecht, 1940, p. 88/90)) (Provenance: Name on the front pastedown: 'L. Rutgers') (Collation: *-3*4, A-3S4 (leaf 3S3 verso and 3S4 blank)) (Photographs on request)