Folio. 2 volumes. Volume 1: (X),LX,(1 portrait), (LXXVI) p.; 1758 columns,(1 blank p.) Volume 2: (IV),XIII,(1 blank) p., 1604 (recte 1602) columns, (44 indices) p. Vellum 41 cm 'Prize copy' (Ref: STCN ppn 239053672; Hoffmann 2,261; Brunet 3,146; Schweiger 1,147; Graesse 3,266; Ebert 9641; Spoelder Amsterdam 12) (Details: Backs gilt and with 6 raised bands. Boards with gilt borders and the coat of arms of Amsterdam. Title in red and black. Full page three-quarter length portrait of Alberti, by the Dutch engraver Jacobus Houbraken, famous for his portraits; the portrait is after a painting of Frans Decker, now in the 'Academiegebouw' of the University of Leiden. Printed in 2 columns, on the uppper part of the page the Greek text, on the lower part the commentary. Prize copy, without the prize) (Condition: Prize removed. Vellum age-toned and slightly worn. Gilt border of the second volume slightly damaged. Backs soiled. 3 of the 8 original green textile fastening ties still present, the others gone. Paper slightly yellowing) (Note: The lexicographer Hesychius Alexandrinus compiled his lexicon in the 5th or 6th century A.D. The work offers numerous fragments which enable the reconstruction of corrupt passages in the texts of classical authors. Its worth for classical scholarship lies also in the abundance of data on Greek dialects, and the history of the Greek language. § This Hesychius edition of 1746/66, with the annotations of many leading scholars, is the third important edition after the 'editio princeps' of 1514. The lexicon was first edited by the Greek scholar Marcus Musurus, ca. 1470-1517, who was professor of Greek at Padua and Venice. Marcus Musurus produced the edition at the request of the Venetian scholar/printer Aldus Manutius, who received the manuscript, dating from the 15th century, for publication from its owner, the Mantuan scholar and mathematician Giangiacomo Bardellone. This manuscript, the 'Codex Marcianus Graecus 622', was acquired by the Venetian 'Bibliotheca Marciana' in 1734. It is the only surviving manuscript of Hesychius. It is badly preserved and in many places interpolated, even obliterated by expansions and notes made by Musurus while he was preparing the Aldus edition. For this treatment Aldus and Musurus have been criticized, because they did not take the trouble to make an apograph of a manuscript belonging to a friend, but ruthlessly used the original. § The next important edition was produced by the Dutch schoolmaster Cornelis Schrevelius, who did not break new ground, but diligently sifted through, excerpted and amassed the commentaries and annotations of various leading specialists, as J.J. Scaliger, Claudius Salmasius and Franciscus Guyetus. § That Schrevelius did a lousy job was proven in the preface of the next important Hesychius edition, Leiden 1746/66, which was produced by the Dutch theologian and classical scholar Johannes Alberti, 1698-1762. Alberti dedicates 5 pages of the preface to the mistakes, omissions and inaccuracies of Schrevelius, providing numerous examples of his sloppy 'modus operandi'. Alberti was from 1740 professor of theology at the University of Leiden. His inaugural lecture deals with the union of theology and critical judgment. In it he argued that the study of Greek linguistics is indispensable for theology. According to him, the New Testament could only be explained with the aid of the Greek language. In this respect he sided with the Frisian scholar Tiberius Hemsterhuis, 1685-1766, professor of Greek at Leiden, and his successor Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer, 1715-1785, the greatest Dutch classical scholars of the 18th century. They advised their students to use especially the lexica of the ancient lexicographers. These works could be of great use, they argued, for the understanding of textual problems and for the amending of texts of classical authors, and they were of great help to gain a profound knowledge of the Greek language and its vocabulary. This philologic approach however undermined the authority of the Scripture, and brought Alberti in conflict with protestant literalists. Sources for Alberti's criticism were the works of Philo, Josephus and the Church Fathers, and ancient lexica, like Hesychius. In those works he found material, e.g. 'various readings', to emend and elucidate the New Testament. He succeeded in correcting the text of Hesychius in many places. He however based his edition, like Schrevelius before him, on the 'editio princeps' of Aldus of 1514, and did not see or consult the only surviving manuscript. Alberti suffered from tuberculosis, and could not finish the complete alphabet of Hesychius except for a few letters. The second volume was published posthumously due to the efforts of the Leiden professor of Latin David Ruhnkenius) (Collation: Volume 1: *6 (minus blank leaf *6),+-10+2, chi1 (portrait), a-t2, A-5S4 (leaf 5S4 verso blank). Volume 2: pi2, *-3*2, 4*1 (leaf 4*1 verso blank), A-5I4, 5K-5S2, 5T1 (leaf 5T1 verso blank)) (The pagination jumps at leaf 5C3 of gathering 5C from column 1514 at 1517) (Photographs on request) (Heavy set, may require extra shipping costs)