4to. 2 parts in 1: (XVI),822 (recte 800); 110,(153 index),(1 blank) p., frontispiece, 12 full-page engraved portraits of emperors, 1 folding plate showing an inscription. Half calf. 24.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 852709684; Schweiger 2,978; Ebert 21931; Moss 2,631; Dibdin 2,441; Brunet 5,582) (Details: Back gilt, and with a red morocco shield. Boards marbled. Frontispiece depicting Suetonius at work at a desk in the Pantheon. Woodcut printers' mark on the title, depicting 'Minerva Traiectina', who rests under an olive tree; a ribbon in the tree bears the motto: 'Pax artium altrix'. Each biography of a Roman emperor is preceded by an engraved portrait, made after a Roman coin. § The text of Suetonius (the 'Vitae', 'De illustribus grammaticis liber' and 'De claris rhetoribus liber') is followed by 14 pages with inscriptions to illustrate the 'Lives', and 47 pages with the commentary of Graevius; added is a 70 p. commentary of the Dutch scholar Theodorus Marcilius on Suetonius' biography of Vespasian. After this a small section with the prefaces to Suetonius by Politianus and Casaubon, and Vossius' article on Suetonius from 'De historicis Latinis'. Included is also the text of the 'Monumentum Ancyranum', with Isaac Casaubon's commentary; at the end a 153 page index compiled by Matthias Berneccerus) (Condition: Wear to the extremities of the boards. A few small pieces of the marbled paper on both boards are gone. Front flyleaf removed. Small inscription on the front pastedown. Some slight foxing) (Note: The Roman historian Suetonius, born c. 69 A.D, is the most influential and best known biographer in the Latin language. He was appointed secretary to the emperor Hadrian, a job that gave him access to the imperial records and archive. He made good use of his sources, writing the Lives of the XII Caesars, or 'De vita Caesarum'. The collection consists of the biographies of 12 emperors, from Caesar, the founder of the imperial line, to Domitian. 'Suetonius, like Plutarch, believed that a person's character could be revealed in small and insignificant details'. He 'organized his Lives by topics (per species) rather than chronologically'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass. 2010, p. 912/13) Beyond simplicity and clearness he has no stylistic pretentions. He quotes verbatim from documents he knew, and shows critical ability. 'The great number of scurrilous anecdotes in most of the lives may be due to the nature of his sources'. (OCD, 2nd ed. p. 1020/1) Of another of his works, 'De viris illustribus', a collection biographies of famous Roman authors, the lives of Lucan, Horace, Vergil and Terence have survived, and his 'Liber de illustribus grammaticis', and his 'De claris rhetoribus liber'. Suetonius was read in the Middle Ages. The Frank Einhard wrote a biography of Charlemagne along the lines of a Life of Suetonius. § From the Renaissance onward Suetonius was neglected. Pioneering work was done by the French scholar Isaac Casaubon, who produced an excellent text and a valuable commentary. (Geneva 1595/1615) This work was continued by the Dutch scholar Graevius with his great Suetonius edition of 1672. This edition became, with her numerous reissues and revisions, the foundation for the widespread study of Suetonius in the Netherlands and in England, and in the next (18th) century the scholarly interest in Suetonius has been greater than ever before or since. This edition of 1691 is the first reissue, and contains the entire commentaries of Torrentius, Casaubon, with the notes of the Dutch scholar Theodorus Marcilius (Arnheimensis) and Jacobus Gronovius, and the Portugese humanist Achilles Statius, or Aquiles Estaço. § Gibbon praised Suetonius for his strict dedication to historical truth. Nowadays 'historians of Rome take him more seriously than do literary critics'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass., 2010, p. 913) § Johann Georg Graeve, or in Latin Johannes Georgius Graevius, 1632-1703, was of German descent. He was professor of Eloquence at Duisburg, from 1657 at Deventer and from 1661 at Utrecht, where he lived and worked for the last 40 years of his life. He limited his attention mainly to writers of Latin prose, Cicero, Suetonius, Caesar, Justinus, Florus. This scholar of international stature is remembered for his 'Inscriptiones antiquae', long time a standard edition. He is also famous for his three 'Thesauri', in which important works of previous leading scholars were collected and reprinted, the 'Thesaurus eruditionis scholasticae', the 12 folio volumes of the 'Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum', and the 9 volumes 'Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae') (Provenance: On the front pastedown in ink in Dutch, 'Geschenk aan de bibliotheek van A.M.A. Meyer') (Collation: *-2*4; A-5H4; 6A-7K4 (leaf 7K4 verso blank); plates after 2*4, 110, 294, 366. 432, 492, 562, 567, 600, 619, 649, 660, folding plate after 762. Error in pagination: it jumps at 351 on the recto to 354 on the verso, and from 731 on the recto to 752 on the verso)) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)