4to. 3 volumes, plus 1 additional volume: (1:) (XII including title and frontispiece),LXXII,882 p., 1 plate. (2:) (IV),953,(1blank) p. (3:) (IV),860 p. (4:) (IV),500,(3 errata),(1 blank) p. Vellum. 26.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 175754950; Hoffmann 2,537/8; Dibdin 2,193/4; Moss 2, 263: 'A very elegant and excellent edition, carefully compiled by 3 scholars whose abilities are well known'; Brunet 3,1207: 'Édition la plus estimée de cet auteur'; Graesse 4,278; Ebert 12385) (Details: 4 uniform volumes. Backs with 5 raised bands. Boards with blindstamped ornament within double fillet borders. Title pages printed in red and black. The frontispiece is produced by P. Tanjé, and shows scenes from the work of Lucianus. An engraved printer's mark on the title, depicting 2 sphinxes and 2 putti around a burin being sharpened on a whetstone (Wetstein!), around it the device: 'Terar dum prosim'. § Without the 'Lexicon Lucianeum' of Reitzius (Utrecht 1743), often considered as a kind of 4th volume, but with a supplementary (4th) volume which contains Hemsterhuis' posthumously collected observations on Lucianus) (Condition: Vellum age-tanned. Boards slightly curved. Old references in ink on the front flyleaf of the first volume. Some marginal pencil annotations. Paper occasionally yellowing) (Note: 'This is not only the most beautiful, but the most accurate and complete edition of Lucian'. (Dibdin) § The Greek author of Syrian descent Lucianus, born ca. 120 A.D. in Samosata on the Euphrate, and still alive in 180, was trained as a rhetorician, won wealth and fame, but nevertheless abandoned rhetoric, and turned to philosophy. He then learned to contempt the philosophers of his time, and pursued later in life a career as civil servant in Alexandria. His surviving works show that he was a witty and intelligent author, who knew how to entertain his public. He amused his readers with his witty disgust for all forms of supernaturalism, superstition and vanity. He is best known for his works on literary subjects, such as 'How to write history', and for his romances 'A true story' and 'Lucius, or the Ass', for his satirical dialogues, and his quasi-philosophical treatises, such as 'Dialogues of the Dead', which are 'curious and grimly funny little sketches, the moral of which is usually the vanity of human pride and wealth'. (H.J. Rose, A handbook of Greek literature', London 1967, p. 419). § Renaissance enthusiasm revived Lucian. He was admired by humanist scholars for his supple style and his pure Attic vocabulary. 'Students of Greek found his colloquial style congenial, and Renaissance wits strove to imitate his humorous vision of the world'. (The Classical Tradition, N.Y. 2010, p. 544) In the early 16th century the Dutch scholar Erasmus 'praised Lucian as a relentless persecutor of all superstition, and many of his Latin Colloquia, such as Charon (1529) draw inspiration from Lucianic dialogue'. (op. cit. 545) Thomas More's Utopia (1515) is also indebted to the fantastic voyage in Lucian's 'True Story'. 'The Lucianic quest culminated in the philosophical 'conte' of the Enlightenment, of which Voltaire's Candide (1759) is the most celebrated and influential example'. (op. cit. 545) § The honour of reviving the study of Greek in the Netherlands belongs to the Dutch classical scholar Tiberius Hemsterhuis, 1685-1766, who became professor Mathematics and Philosophy at the Athenaeum of Amsterdam at the age of 19. His great example was the English classical scholar Richard Bentley, 1662-1742, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, with whom he corresponded early in his career. In 1705 Hemsterhuis was promoted to a professorship in Harderwijk, and in 1717 he was appointed professor of Greek at the University of Franeker. In 1740 he was finally called to Leiden. He produced an edition of Pollux (1706), 'Luciani colloquia et Timon' (1708), the complete works of Lucianus (1743) and of the Plutus of Aristophanes (1744), a work which Gudeman calls 'epochemachend'. He contributed also notes to the editions of many other scholars. Sandys observes that 'the work of a Hemsterhuis was worth whole bundles of the mechanically manufactured products of a Burman'. (Sandys 2,451) Hemsterhuis was the founder of a Dutch school of criticism, the so-called 'Schola Hemsterhusiana', which had disciples in Valckenaer, Jacob van Lennep and David Ruhnken. The last one was the most famous of his pupils. 'Hemsterhuis has had the supreme felicity of being immortalised by 'laudator eloquentissimus' Ruhnken. The 'Elogium T. Hemsterhusii', delivered in 1768 by his pupil Ruhnken, on resigning the office of Rector, is one of the Classics in the History of Scholarship. It presents us with the living picture of the perfect critic'. (Idem, ibidem) § This perfect critic produced the greater part of the first volume. It contains, according to Dibdin, a rich fund of the most curious and profound criticism relating to Lucian. The second and third volume was produced by the classical scholar of German origin, Johann Friedrich Reitz, 1695-1778, who had studied at Utrecht, became conrector/rector of the local Schola Latina, and was for the last 30 years of his life professor of History and Eloquence in the University of Utrecht. His younger brother Karel Koenraad Reitz, then Rector of the Schola Latina of Gorcum, compiled the erudite 'Lexicon Lucianeum' (Utrecht 1746), which is often added as 4th volume to the 3 volumes Lucianus editions. The Latin translation of the German scholar Johann Matthias Gesner, 1691-1761, is according to Sandys admirable, He contributed also excellent notes and emendations. (Sandys 3, p. 5) § Instead of the 'Lexicon Lucianeum', another 4th volume has been added to our set, consisting of an Appendix of Hemsterhuis' notes and annotations. It was compiled by the Dutch classical scholar and librarian of the University of Leiden, Jacob Geel, 1789-1862. In the preface to the Appendix Geel explains that he collected and edited important observations that he found in Hemsterhuis' papers, his correspondence and in the margins of his books residing in the University's library collections. He also thanks the firm of Luchtmans that they took the trouble to produce an edition similiar in appearance to the 'Lexicon Lucianeum', so that it may be considered a matching supplement to the edition of 1743/46. (Praefatio, leaf pi2) (Collation: (1:) pi4, *-9*4, 10*2; A-5S4, 5T2 (minus blank leaf 5T2), plate after p. LXII. (2:) pi2, A-6D4 (minus blank leaf 6B4), 6E2 (leaf 6E2 verso blank). (3:) pi2, A-5Q4 (minus blank leaves 5Q3 & 5Q4) (4:) pi2, A-6L2) (Photographs on request) (Heavy set, may require extra shipping costs)