Beschrijving
Amsterdam, Typis Ludovici Elzevirii, 1652, 8vo., contemporary full vellum binding (spitselband), title in ink on spine, handsewn headbands intact, 715+[5] pp. The book is in good condition with the bookblock still solid, endpaper loose from binding in the back, one spitsel is broken, the others are intact, clean pages. With an engraved title page depicting the playwright Plautus pointing with his left hand to a performance, in his right hand he holds a jester staff. With a bookplate of J.J.D. Nepveu on the endpaper in the front and a handwritten name in ink on the front flyleaf ‘J. Brugman’. Lit: Ref: Willems 1152, note; Bergmann 2214; Rahir 3319; Schweiger 2,766; Ebert 17196; Brunet 4,709; Graesse 5,329.
Edouard Rahir explains in his book on Elzevier editions (first published in 1896), there are various unauthorized reprints of books printed by Elzevier. This might be one of them. This edition does differ from the edition in the collection of the Amsterdam University Library. In their edition, the A2 custode reads ‘bene’, in our edition the A2 custode reads ‘Quae’. The Amsterdam edition has a decorative headpiece on the first textpage, our edition does not. Both editions have a decorative endpiece on the last page, but they are different.
M. Accius Plautus, ca. 250-184 B.C., better known as Titus Maccius Plautus was a playwright of great talent. 21 of his plays, the so called ‘Fabulae Varronianae’ survive more or less complete. His Vidularia survives only in mutilated fragments, and is not incorporated in this edition. This 1652 edition seems to be a reprint of the edition of 1630, which was produced by the Dutch scholar Johan Isaac Pontanus, 1561-1639. It was repeated in 1640 by the Blaeu Brothers, and in 1652 by Louis Elsevier, but only the text of the comedies, the short notes of Pontanus printed at the end were omitted.
