4to. (XLIV),914 (recte 916),(183),(1 blank) p. Frontispiece. 19th century vellum. 26 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 240849671; Schweiger 2,1111; Brunet 5,1050: 'bonne édition'; Dibdin 2,522/23: 'one of the most valuable and best edited of the Dutch classics'; Moss 2,702; Graesse 6,2/245; Ebert 23333; Fabricius/Ernesti 2,61: 'Omnium optima') (Details: The frontispiece, designed and engraved by Jan Wandelaar, is difficult to interpret; on the upper part we see a scene in heaven, where a man with a club is crowned by an female angel; cudling up against him is a woman who holds a ring in her left hand, a dog rests in her arms; right of them kneels an offering woman, who seems to be distracted by this couple; on the lower part of the frontispiece we see a man with an owl at his feet; he is flocking a crowned man and a woman with peacock feathers on her head, to drive them into a hole in the ground, from which they probably emerged. The title is printed in red & black. The edges of the book-block are dyed red) (Condition: Paper slightly yellowing) (Note: The Roman historian Valerius Maximus, who lived during the reign of the emperor Tiberius, composed a manual of illustrative examples for rhetoricians, the 'Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'. 'The subject-matter of the nine books has no clearly defined plan, but is divided under headings, mostly moral or philosophical in character (e.g. Moderation, Gratitude, Chastity, Cruelty), which are usually illustrated by Roman (domestica) and foreign (externa) examples. (...) The work is shallow, sententious, and bombastic, full of the boldest metaphor and rhetorical artifices of the Silver Age. (...) Yet the variety and convenience of the compilation ensured some measure of success in antiquity, and considerably more in the Middle Ages'. (OCD 2nd ed. 1106) Medieval education drew heavily from classical authors, for pagan learning was necessary for understanding the Scripture. The focus often was on memorizing 'sententiae' and offering 'exempla' and anecdotes that exemplified virtues. The critical and historical approach of the Renaissance to the school curriculum eliminated most post-classical authors in favor of Cicero for rhetoric, Virgil for poetry, and Caesar, Valerius Maximus or Sallust for history, on the argument that antiquity provided the best models for understanding people and their place in society'. (The Classical Tradition, Cambr. Mass. 2010, p. 294) § Not much is known about the Dutch editor of this excellent Valerius Maximus of 1726, Abraham Torrenius. From 1704 till 1717 he was praeceptor of the 'Schola Latina' at Rotterdam, and after that he became Rector of the Gymnasium of Leiden. He died there in 1739. In that year Luchtmans auctioned the 'Bibliotheca Torrentiana', of this 'dum in vivis esset, Rector Gymnasii Leidensis vigilantissimus'. He indeed was a very a sharp-eyed and stern teacher, for one of his pupils, Henricus Hoogeveen (1712-1791), who shivered in his presence, was very much afraid of the dark sarcasm of this 'Brick in the wall'. 'Alles, was er, vom frühen Morgen an bis zur Schulzeit, mit vielem Ueberdruss und der grössten Mühe gelernet hatte, gieng ihm, sobald er seinen strengen Lehrmeister zu Gesichte bekam, nicht anders als mit Zittern aus dem Munde. Daher war kein Mangel an Schelten, und (...) dadurch war sein Verstand als betäubet'. ('Das neue gelehrte Europa', Wolfenbüttel 1757, 12. Theil, caput XIX, p. 1043). Hoogeveen became later a famous Greek linguist, who earned fame with his Vigerus editions and especially his 'magnum opus', 'Doctrina particularum linguae graecae' (1769). § Nevertheless, all bibliographers agree, Torrenius produced a superb Valerius Maximus edition. He skillfully excerpted, compared and contrasted his sources, and offered a 'textus receptus' accompanied with the commentary and the annotations of specialists, taken from earlier useful, normative or renewing editions (cum notis Variorum)) (Provenance: Name in ballpoint on front flyleaf of professor Lennart Hakanson, 1939-1987, professor of Latin at the university of Uppsala) (Collation: pi1 (frontispiece), +-2+4, 3+1, *-3*4, 4*2; A-3T4, chi1 (signed 3V1), 3V-6Y4, 6Z1 (leaf 6Z1 verso blank. The catchword on leaf 3+verso is 'VA-', which doesnot connect with the next leaf *1; With this leaf *1 begins the section with prefaces and dedications; only after leaf 4*2, the last leaf of the preliminaries, and at leaf A, the beginning of the text, we find the word that is to be connected with 'Va', i.e. 'Valerius'. The dedications on the *- gatherings have apparantly been inserted afterwards) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)