8vo. (I, frontispiece),(XX),1081 (recte 1083),(54 index),(1 blank) p. Folding map. Vellum. 21.5 cm 'Prize copy' (Ref: STCN ppn 238030504; Schweiger 2,611/12; Ebert 13634; Graesse 5,403; Brunet 4,801; Dibdin 2,356; Spoelder p. 669, Schiedam 6) (Details: Prize copy, including the manuscript prize for Gerhardus Gelenius Brons. Back gilt. Boards with blind double fillet borders and gilt corner pieces, & the gilt coat of arms of the city of Schiedam. Engraved frontispiece by H. van der Mey and F. Bleyswyck, it depicts a cartographer busy drawing a map; in the foreground 2 nymps, one handles instruments of the cartographer, the other inspects archaeological remains. Numerous engraved illustrations in the text. The folding map of the world is after A.P. Bertius. The first 320 pages contain the text and commentary. The rest of the book is filled with the annotations of earlier important scholars) (Condition: Vellum age tanned. All 4 decorative silk fastening ribbons gone. Tiny bookseller's label on the front pastedown.) (Note: Pomponius Mela, a geographer from the South of Spain, wrote in 43/44 AD. under Claudius the first surviving work on geography in Latin. Pomponius is foremost a writer: distances, directions and other useful information for sailors or travellers is lacking. His work was meant for a educated and curious Roman public. It was known in the Middle Ages, and in the following centuries he was read at school. § The Dutch scholar Jacobus Gronovius, 1645-1716, lived in the shadow of his famous father Johannes Fredericus Gronovius, professor Greek of the Unverstiy of Leiden till his death in 1671. His son Jacobus was appointed professor of History and Greek in 1679. He is best known for the 13 volume set 'Thesaurus Antiquitatum Graecarum' which he edited (1697-1702). This industrious scholar produced editions of Tacitus, Gellius, Herodotus, Polybius, Livius, Ammianus, Harpocration and Stephanus Byzantinus, and the 'editio princeps' of Manetho. Gronovius' first edition of Mela Pomponius is of 1685. He published a revised edition with commentary in 1696. Abraham Gronovius, 1695-1775, the son of Jacobus Gronovius produced in 1722 a new 'Variorum' edition of Mela Pomponius, based on the edition of his father. In 1748 Abraham Gronovius published a second and augmented edition of this work. About this second edition Abraham tells us in the preface, that the Luchtman brothers asked him to produce a new 'Variorum' edition, and that he based his edition again of that of his father. 'In ipso Pomponii Melae contextu constituendo Paternam editionem secutus sum, nisi venustiores ac nitidiores codicum MS. lectiones me alio vocarent'. (Lectori p. *3 verso/*4 recto of this 1782 edition) He consulted 11 manuscripts, including one of his one. He also added notes from earlier important editions. Jacobus Perizonius and Carolus Andreas Duker also gladly send him their own unpublished annotations. (Idem, p. *5 recto) This Mela Pomponius edition of 1782, called the third edition, is a reissue of the second edition of 1748. The preface of 1748 is repeated in this 1782 edition. § Abraham Gronovius was librarian at Leyden University, from 1741 until his death. He produced editions of the 'Historiae Philippicae' of Justinus, and two editions of Aelianus. He showed interest in geographical matters. He published at Leyden in 1739 his 'Varia Geographica', and in 1752 a school edition of Mela which offers a Latin text only) (Provenance: The manuscript prize is awarded to young 'Gerhardo Gelinio Brons', on the occasion of his promotion from the 3rd to the 2nd grade for his diligence. The date is September 4, 1783, and signed by the 'curatores' of the 'Schola Latina' at Schiedam, C.J. Bosschaert, W. Jager, Jacobus van Eijk, and the Rector Johannes van Laar. Ger(h)ardus Gelenius Brons, age 17, enrolled as a student at the University of Leiden in 1785. He died in Schiedam in 1847. § On the front flyleaf a small green label 'Wm Strong, bookseller, (3) Clare Street, Bristol'. William Strong died in 1846)(Collation: pi1, *8, 2*2; A-4B8 (leaf 4B8 verso, last page, blank. Leaf chi1 (title-page of part 2) bound between gathering P & Q)) (Photographs at request)