4to. 2 volumes. Frontispiece, (XXXVI),756 (recte 764);578,(158 index) p. Vellum 26 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 198473214; Schweiger 2,1003/04; Dibdin 2,454: 'A very ample and excellent edition; containing the notes and observations of almost all the old and best editors'; Moss 2,644/45; Brunet 5, 635; 398/99; Graesse 6/2, p. 9/10; Ebert 22169; Fabricius/Ernesti 2,398/99) (Details: Backs with 6 raised bands. Short title in ink in the second compartment. Boards with blindstamped double fillet borders, enclosing another blindstamped rectangle and ornament. Frontispiece designed and engraved by J. Goeree, the upperpart of which shows 2 women crowning a bust of Agricola, in the foreground stands a royal woman with a crown (Roma?) on her head; she points at a big engraving in the middle of a Caesar, which is being engraved by winged woman (a Muse?). Title printed in red & black. Engraved printer's device on the first title, showing a scholar in his study, he is flanked by statues of Athena and Artemis; the motto is: 'Ingenio stat sine morte decus'. (Propertius III,2,26) On the second title page we find a portrait of Tacitus, engraved by Goeree; Tacitus is flanked there by Athena, an eagle & 2 putti) (Condition: Vellum age-tanned and slightly soiled. The boards are rather curved and outstanding) (Note: The Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus offered ammunition for many intellectual and political battles in 16th and 17th century Europe. The turmoil caused by the emerging new monarchies in England, France en Spain, civil and religious wars in Italy and Germany, and the plague, made Tacitus' account of the state of the early Roman Empire increasingly topical and relevant. The debate Tacitus provoked in intellectual circles was of course on Roman history, but also on literary style, in Latin and the vernacular, but more so on historical and political thought. Tacitus ideas were not original, but he brought them in a forceful lapidary way, oneliners ready for the use in debate. Tacitus became in a corrupted world 'the one true guide for those involved in the awful revolution of modern times', he 'teaches well the mode of life under tyrants, just as he teaches tyrants how to establish tyranny''. ('The Classical Tradition', Cambr. Mass., 2010, p. 921) The French humanist scholar Muretus (Marc Antoine Muret, 1526-1585) declared that 'Tacitus' descriptions of lost liberty, failed revolutions, vicious civil wars, and mad emperors amounted to a theater of our time'. (Op. cit., ibid.) § The Flemish latinist Justus Lipsius, 1547-1606, one of the most learned men of his day, praised Tacitus as a teacher of vital political lessons. Students and men of letters busied themselves in what they called the study of 'politics', summarizing in pointed, abrupt, witty Latin theses the Tacitean lessons about politics. By reading Tacitus' Annals and Histories the student could learn what constructive role the members of the social elite could play in the creation of a political and military system. Students in the Netherlands found ammunition especially in Tacitus' Germania, a detailed description of the peoples in Germany and the Low Countries. To show that the new Dutch Republic, founded in 1588, 'rested on solid historical foundations, they turned to Tacitus, who made clear that their ancestors, the Batavi, had resisted the tyranny of Rome, just as the modern citizens of Holland and Zeeland resisted that of Spain'. (Op.cit., 923) § This Tacitus edition of 1721 is based on the edition of 1672 of the Dutch scholar of German origin Johannes Fredericus Gronovius, 1611-1671, who was professor of Greek at the University of Leiden. That edition (of 1672) appeared one year after his death, and was posthumously produced by his son Jacobus (Jakob) Gronovius, 1645-1716, who was also professor of classics at Leiden. This edition of 1721 was produced by the next Gronovius in line, a son of Jacobus Gronovius, the classical scholar Abraham Gronovius, 1695-1775, who became librarian at Leyden University, from 1741 until his death. § This copious and excellent Tacitus edition of 1721 is a so-called 'Variorum' edition. It offers a 'textus receptus' which is widely accepted, accompanied with the commentary and the annotations of various specialists, taken, or excerpted from earlier useful, normative or renewing editions. Editions like these, 'cum notis Variorum', were useful, but never broke new ground. Their production was the specialty of Dutch scholars of the 17th and 18th century) (Collation: pi2 (frontispiece & title), *-4*4, A-5C4, 5D2; A-4Z4) (Photographs on request) (Heavy set, may require extra shipping costs)