8vo. (XVI),661,(3) p. Overlapping vellum 15.5 cm § Oratorical fireworks (Ref: Willems 277; Berghman 770; Rahir 239 or 240) (Details: 5 thongs laced through the joints. Boards with blind double fillet borders. Elsevier's woodcut printer's mark on the title of both volumes, depicting an old man standing in the shade of a vine-entwined elmtree, symbolising the symbiotic relationship between scholar and publisher. The motto is: 'Non solus', probably indicating the interdependency of publisher and scholar. They cannot do it alone, and need each other) (Condition: Vellum age-tanned. Waterstained in the lower margin at the beginning and at the end of the book. All 4 ties gone. Paper yellowing, some faint browning. Old ownership entry on the front pastedown) (Note: The Dutch classical scholar of Flemish origin Daniel Heinsius, 1580-1655, who enjoyed an international reputation as an editor of classical texts, theorist of literary criticism, historian and neolatin poet, was professor of Poetics at the University of Leiden since 1603, extraordinarius Greek since 1605. After the death of J.J. Scaliger, to whose inner circle he belonged, he held the chair of Greek, from 1609 till 1647. His activities have been obscured to later generations by the very bulk and variety of his activities. He is still remembered for his neolatin poetry, and for his edition of Aristotle's treatise on poetry (1611), which he studied in connexion with the 'Ars Poetica' of Horace. This edition is 'the only considerable contribution to the criticism and eludication of the work that was ever produced in the Netherlands. (...) In his pamphlet 'De tragoediae Constitutione', published in the same year (1611), he deals with all the essential points in Aristotle's treatise, giving proof that he has thoroughly imbibed the author's spirit'. (J.E. Sandys, 'A history of classical scholarship, N.Y., 1964, vol. 2, p. 314) Heinsius was an inspiring teacher and a talented speaker. 'His courses in the University were so impressive that his colleagues attended his lectures, (...). As an ornament in which the University took especial pride, his eloquence graced many public functions. Heinsius composed not only the funeral orations for Philip Cluverius, and for Reinerus Bontius, Professor of Medicin, in 1623, but delivered on 19 September 1625 a 'stupenda oratio', on the death of Prince Maurice, for which he received an award of 200 guilders'. (Sellin, P.R., 'Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England', Leiden etc., 1968, p. 36) The first edition of collected orations, 12 of them, was published in 1612. The second augmented edition came in 1615. Demand for more orations arose, and 1620 saw another augmented edition, augmented further in 1627 (this edition). This edition naturally opens with this stupendous oration on the death of Prince Maurice, followed of course by that other oratorical firework, his funeral speech for his beloved master, the French scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger, a still glowing jewel of the University, who died in Leiden in 1609. At the end have been added 27 pages with letters and prefaces that Heinsius wrote for editions of others. Still more augmented editions of the 'Orationes' were published in 1642, 1652 and 1657) (Provenance: Winterthur provenance? On the front pastedown in faint ink: 'And. Bidermanni'. Googling for 'Andr? Bidermann', we found a Gymnasium teacher in Winterthur, born in 1776, appointed in 1819. There were several hits placing a Andr. Bidermann in the Canton Zürich, Winterthur. More indications in that direction, when we searched for 'Andreas Bidermann') (Collation: *8, A-2S8, 2T4; we couldnot find out whether our copy has the cancels of p. 277/8 and 419/20, which Willems mentions, or not) (Photographs on request)