4to. (VIII),920,(51 index),(1 blank) p. Overlapping vellum. 24 cm (Ref: Schweiger 2,765; Fabricius/Ernesti 1,18; Moss 2,461; Ebert 17188: 'Bloss Nachdruck der Lambinischen Ausgabe'; cf. GLN-3810) (Details: 6 thongs laced through both joints. Title with broad woodcut architectural borders. Woodcut headpieces. Woodcut initials. At the end 2 indices, one 'verborum, locutionum & sententiarum', the other on the commentary of Lambinus) (Condition: Vellum age-toned & soiled. On the titlepage the place of printing: 'Coloniae Allobrogum' (Latin name of Geneva) has been made illegible with ink, and was replaced by 'Genevae', 'at Geneva'. Why this was done is not clear. Some slight foxing. Right lower corner faintly waterstained. Some old ink underlinings) (Note: The 21 surviving comedies of the Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus, ca. 254-184 B.C., have never been out of fashion since the publication of the 'editio princeps' in 1472. Plautus' influence on world literature is huge. The comedies feature stock situations and characters from everyday life. 'Plautine comedy is inventive, exuberant, varied, full of rollicking eavesdropping scenes, lyrical meters, slapstick, and verbal fireworks.' Early editors, commentators and translators ransacked the plays for rhetorical and moral examples. Ever since the first post-classical performances at the end of the 15th century Plautus never left the stage. The Italian 'commedia erudita' and the popular improvisatory 'commedia dell'arte' developed through imitations of the Roman New Comedy. Probably best known is Carlo Goldoni's adaptation of the Menaechmi (1748) 'I duo gemelli veneziani' (The Venetian Twins). Spain saw the development of 'comedias elegíacas', Latin verse that incorporated Plautine passages into dialogue. Authors like Calderón adopted many New Comedy stage conventions to Spanish taste. In Germany the great dramatist Andreas Gryphius adapted the Miles Gloriosus. And in France Molière, the greatest comic playwright of his age, imitated Plautus in his Amphitryon and in l'Avare. English playwrights like Ben Johnson and Shakespeare reworked plays of Plautus. 'Plautine comedy provided Shakespeare with character and action throughout his career, beginning with direct imitation of the Menaechmi with the Comedy of Errors'. A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Tempest, they all adapt themes, situations and persons of Plautus. During the Golden Age of the Netherlands P.C. Hooft wrote Warenar (1617), an adaptation of Plautus' Aulularia. Plautus enjoyes also a new modern life on the screen. Rodgers and Hart created the music for the Boys from Syracuse (1938). Big Business (1988), inspired by the Menaechmi, tells the story of 2 sets of female twins (Bette Midler & Lily Tomlin) separated at birth. Pseudolus and Miles Gloriosus can be found in the hilarious musical and film A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum (1962) (Source of the quotations: The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass., 2010, s.v. Plautus) § The French scholar Dionysius Lambinus, 1520-1572, earned his fame in the field of Latin scholarship with his masterly editions of Horace (1561), Lucretius (1564) and Cicero (1566). He was Professor Regius of Greek at the Collège de France from 1561 till his death. The 19th century English editor and commentator of Lucretius H.A.J. Munro ranks him as one of the best scholars of his time. He says that 'The quickness of his intellect united with his exquisite knowledge of the language gave him great power in the field of conjecture, and for nearly 3 centuries his remained the standard text'. (Munro, DRN, 4th ed., vol. 1 p.14/15). Lambinus' 'reading was as vast as accurate, and its results are given in a style of unsurpassed clearness and beauty', Munro adds. In 1576/77, 4/5 years after his death appeared at last his edition of the comedies written by the Roman playwright Plautus, 250-184 B.C. It is his last great work, in which he showed great critical learning and ability to discover hidden meanings and innuendo. Lambinus fell ill, exhausted by the weight of his studies, and had only time to complete 13 of the 21 plays. This is told in an address to the reader by Iacobus Helias, or Jacques Hélias, or Jacques Hélie, who was the successor of Lambinus as Regius professor of Greek literature from 1572 till 1590, and who completed the work of his colleague. The difficulties, Helias says, in collating manuscripts, mending the text of Plautus, and writing a commentary are enormous. The text is corrupt, and deformed by mistakes and there is a host of different readings, caused by the ignorance and negligence of later generations. Helias lists the humanist scholars who shared with Lambinus their observations on difficult places, not forgetting himself. Lambinus had not left his work on Plautus ready to print. Helias completed the work partly by transcribing what remained of the observations of Lambinus on the subsequent comedies. He complemented what was left open, and supplied and corrected many quotations. Sometimes he had to work out what Lambinus had only sketched. Finally Helias added 2 indices, one for the text of Plautus, and the other for the commentary. Lambinus collated for his edition a number of manuscripts and collected many passages from the ancient grammarians. This is how Lambinus' Plautus is valued in modern scholarship: 'Many valuable emendations go back to Denis Lambin (...); his later comments reveal that he had lost energy and acumen due to his ailments'. (Plautus, Vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library no. 60, Cambr. Mass. 2011, p. CXIV) Lambinus' successor Helias left no trace in the history of scholarship, except for completing the Plautus edition of his colleague. Our edition of 1622, produced by Chouët, is a reissue of the important edition of 1576/77) (Collation: ¶4, A-Z8; Aa-Zz8, AA-KK8, LL4, MM-PP8, QQ2 (leaf QQ2 verso blank)) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)