24mo. 260 p., Engraved title. 19th century calf. 12 cm Fresh copy, very nice binding (Ref: Willems 1102; Rahir 1113; Berghman 2034; Brunet 2,88; Dibdin 1,471; not in Schweiger, nor in Graesse, Moss and Ebert) (Details: Back gilt and with 4 raised bands; red morocco letterpiece. Boards with gilt double fillet borders. Marbled endpapers)(Condition: Some wear to the extremes) (Note: 1650 was a happy year for the last important Roman poet Claudius Claudianus (ca. 400 A.D.). That year saw four editions. First an almost 2 kg heavy edition of the German scholar Caspar von Barth, or Barthius, 1587-1658, whose speciality seems to have been hoarding material. Second an edition 'ex emendatione virorum doctorum' by the Elzevier brothers in Amsterdam. Third a two volume edition, published by the Leiden branch of the Elzeviers, volume one containing the text , and volume two with the notes of Nicolaas Heinsius. (Willems 675) Fourth this slim and elegant text edition of 89 gram edited by the same Nicolaas Heinsius, and published in Amsterdam by the same Elzevier brothers, who published also the second Claudianus edition just mentioned. This last edition repeats the first volume of the Leiden edition, and offers only the Latin text of the poems. It has the same preliminary 'Lectori', 'Claudiani vita', 'Index operum Cl. Claudiani'. It omits however the dedication to Christina, queen of Sweden. § Claudianus 'war ein sehr fruchtbarer, temperamentvoller Dichter und bietet reichen historischen Stoff in rhetorischem Stil'. (Buchwald, Tusculum-Lexikon, 3rd ed. p. 171/2) As 'tribunus et notarius' he acted as court poet for the emperor Theodosius, his general Stilicho, and the emperor's sons Honorius and Arcadius. In 400 he was honoured with a bronze statue on the Forum Trajanum in Rome. His work was widely read in the Middle Ages. The humanists also placed him on the center stage. In the beginning of the 20th century philologists lost interest, but since the rise of interest in late antiquity in the sixties, he is again recognized as one of the great Roman poets. (Neue Pauly, s.v. Claudianus) This 1650 edition is the first of the Dutch classical scholar Nicolaas Heinsius, 1620-1681, the only son of the Leiden professor Daniel Heinsius. Nicolaas Heinsius never held any academic post. Sandys thinks very high of him in his 'A history of classical scholarship': 'His practice in versification, his wide reading in classical and post-classical Latin, and his knowledge of Greek literature made him an accomplished scholar. As a textual critic he had acquired an extensive knowledge of various readings by his study of MSS'. And: 'In making his selection from the vast mass of variants, he was guided by a fine taste and a sound judgement acquired by long experience'. And: 'His editions of the Latin poets laid the foundation of the textual criticism of those authors, and he has thus obtained the title of 'sospitator poetarum Latinorum.' (Sandys 2,323/327) He consulted, young Heinsius tells us in the praefatio, for his edition some 28 manuscripts. Among these were 2 from the University Library of Leiden, and 2 from the Bodleian. Also two that were in the possession of the successor of Plantin, the publisher Balthasar Moretus, manuscripts that were originally used for the Plantin edition of Claudian by Pulman (Antwerp, 1571). Heinsius consulted also three manuscripts which the French librarian and collector of manuscripts Alexander Petavius sent him, one of the Royal library, one of his own, and one owned by J.A. de Thou) (Provenance: On the boards the gilt coat of arms of Joseph-Guilhem, comte de Lagondie, 1809-1879. He was a bibliophile and an Elzevier collector. His collection was dispersed after his death. § On the front pastedown an armorial bookplate: 'Ex libris bibliothecae de Don Joannes Baptista Moens, natus 1833') (Collation: A-Q8, R2) (Photographs on request)