Title in Greek.] Theognidis Megarensis sententiæ morales nova Latina versione, notis &emendationibus explanatæ & exornatæ: unà cum variis lectionibus ex Augustano & duobus Palatinis MSS. codicibus, qui in Bibliotheca Vaticana iam asservantur, desumptis. Quibus subjunguntur indices duo locupletissimi, I. Prior vocabulorum omnium. II. Posterior in notas. Præmittuntur, I. Vita Theognidis. II. Testimonia veterum & recentiorum de Theognide. In usum scholarum.
London: typis J. Heptinstall, impensis autem H. Nisbett (Derby); apud H. Mortlock, 1706. First edition, as edited by Anthony Blackwall; the elegiac poems of Theognis of Megara, from the 6th century B.C., had been printed in England only once before, in 1639 (STC 23944). This is Blackwall's first book, written while he was headmaster at the Derby School (whence Nisbett's name in the imprint); the Greek text is followed by a Latin translation, and extensive notes and indices; at the beginning is a poetical address from Blackwall to Joshua Barnes, the well-known professor of Greek. More than twenty years later Blackwall became headmaster at the Market Bosworth Grammar School in Leicestershire, just as Samuel Johnson arrived there to take up his first adult employment as usher (a distressing experience described at length by Boswell); Johnson's direct association with Blackwall, however, which must have lasted a few months until Blackwall's death in April, 1730, is undocumented. Text in Greek and Latin. Joints cracking but sound, some pencil markings on terminal blanks. Signatures of Edward Tennant dated 1742; later armorial bookplate of Henry Hobhouse (1776-1854) and a note of acquisition for one shilling at "Orme's sale," probably the sale at Sotheby's of the library of Robert Orme, the historian of India, in April, 1796. A good and interesting copy. Contemporary sheep, a bit worn. Octavo. [12], 181, [2, addenda], [1, blank] pp. Item #14942
The 1400 lines ascribed to Theognis form more than half the surviving elegiac poetry of the pre-Alexandrian period; there are important references to Theognis in both Plato and Aristotle.
ESTC (1990) lists three copies in North America (Huntington Library, Illinois University, Amherst College). Brunet V, 791-2 ("édition mal imprimée mais assez bonne"); CBEL II, 1823.
Price: $950.00