Cebes.

[Title in Greek.] Cebetis Thebani Tabula, Græce & Latine, multis in locis restituta ex MSS. codicibus, unde etiam Græca in fine reposita ab Jacobo Gronovio, cuius accedunt notæ & emendationes.

Amsterdam: apud Henricum Westenium, 1689. First edition as edited by the Dutch scholar Jakob Gronovius. This famous allegory of the life of man, known as "Pinax" or the "Table" of Cebes and long popular as a school text, was originally ascribed to a Pythagorean follower of Socrates; it is now assigned to a later date, as it contains element of the Stoic philosophy of the Roman empire. This edition by Gronovius, making use of several additional manuscripts, was the best critical text yet produced. Parallel Greek and Latin texts. The Latin translation by Wolf was first opubkished in 1560. Joints a bit rubbed. Ink signature on the front flyleaf of Robert Raymond, dated 1692 (see DNB); Raymond was then a student at Christ's College, Cambridge, and went on to become Lord Chief Justice. A very good copy of an uncommon book. Contemporary calf, panelled in blind, brown morocco label. Small octavo. [32], 199 pp. Item #15601

Gronovius was an industrious classicist, who produced a massive thesaurus of Greek antiquities in thirteen folio volumes (1687-1702), and became involved in a dispute with Bentley. Dibdin quotes Harwood as describing his edition of Cebes as "very correct and beautiful."

Dibdin I, 388-9; Schweiger, p. 78; Brunet I, 1709. OCLC lists nine copies in North America: Yale, Villanova, Harvard, Princeton, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Toronto.

Price: $950.00