KOLOUTHOU HARPAGÊ HELENÊS. Coluthi raptus Helenae. Recensuit ad fidem codicum MSS. ac variantes lectiones et notas adiecit Joannes Daniel a Lennep. Accedunt eiusdem animadversionum libri tres tum in Coluthum tum in nonnullos alios auctores.

Leeuwarden, (Leovardiae), Ex officina Guilielmi Coulon, Illustr. Frisiae Ordd. & Acad. Typographi, (colophon: Typis J. Brouwer, Franequerae), 1747. 8vo. XXVI,127,(1 blank);215,(1 colophon) p. Vellum 20 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 156632918; Hoffmann I,471; Brunet 2,173/74; Ebert 5018; Graesse 2,231) (Details: 6 thongs laced through both joints. Title in red & black. Greek text with facing Latin translation, and critical notes on the lower part of the page. The second part of the work consists of 2 books with a commentary on Coluthus, and a third on several other Greek authors) (Condition: Vellum showing the patina of its age. Free endpapers gone. Edges of first leaves thumbed. Paper yellowing, the title page somewhat browning) (Note: The second edition of the OCD (1970) is rather negative about the Greek epic poet of Egyptian origin Coluthus (or Colluthus), ca. 5th cent. A.D. His only surviving work, the 'Rape of Helena', an epyllion of 392 hexameters, is deemed uninspired and clearly influenced by Nonnus. Dibdin, in his famous bibliography, and much later H.J. Rose, in his 'A Handbook of Greek literature' did not take the trouble of mentioning him at all. The 11th edition of the Encyclopeda Brittanica of 1910, volume VI, finds the poem 'dull and tasteless, devoid of imagination, a poor imitation of Homer, and (it) has little to recommend it except its harmonious versification, based upon the technical rules of Nonnus'. The RE, volume XI of 1922, col. 1099, s.v. 'Kolluthos' is harsh, and finds his poetry 'Machwerk, sprachliche und sachliche Stümperei'. Nowadays Coluthus' poetry is rehabilitated. Der 'Neue Pauly', volume 3 of 1999, is positive. Coluthus is called 'ein vollendeter Künstler', who imitates Homer. 'Der Tradition hellenistischer Dichtung folgend, wendet er die stilistischen Regeln der 'imitatio', der 'variatio', und der 'oppositio in imitando' an'. (NP s.v. Kolluthos) In 2010 Coluthus' poem was upgraded to 'a short and charming miniature epic'. (Griffin,J., 'The Cambridge Companion to the Epic', Cambr. 2010, p. 28) § The 'Rape of Helena' tells the story of the Trojan prince Paris and Helena, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the judgement of Paris, the elopement of Helena from Sparta, till the arrival of Paris and Helena in Troy, and as we all know 'Helenae raptus belli Trojani causa habendus'. The young Dutch scholar Johannes Daniël van Lennep, born in Leeuwarden in 1724, chose to produce this edition of Coluthus to finish his studies under Valckenaer and Schrader at the University of Franeker. He did not edit Coluthus to rehabilitate him, or because he liked his poetry, it has nothing to recommend itself, he says in the preface. His edition is proof of his competence as a scholar on the threshold of a scholarly career. (Praefatio, page V) The professor of Greek at Leyden University, Tiberius Hemsterhuis, who Van Lennep much admired, and under whom he wanted to continue his studies, once called the work of Coluthus 'corruptissimum simul et mutilum'. (Idem, p. VI) Van Lennep produced his Coluthus to show him that he was able to amend this corrupt text. (Idem, p. VII) He thanks his professor Valckenaer for giving him his collation of an important manuscript, the Vossianus. He thanks also Jacobus Philippus d'Orville, 1696-1775, since 1730 professor Greek of the 'Athenaeum Illustre' of Amsterdam, and the young scholar David Ruhnkenius, 1723-1798, for their collations of important manuscripts, which they consulted in the libraries of Florence, Paris, Milan and Hamburg. (Idem, p. XI & XIII). On stylistic grounds he dates the poem not long after Nonnus and Tryphiodorus. (Idem, p. XX) (See for Van Lennep, J.G. Gerretzen's dissertation, 'Schola Hemsterhusiana', Nijmegen-Utrecht, 1940, p. 312-329) Van Lennep studied under Hemsterhuis another 5 years. In 1752 he was appointed professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Groningen. He died in 1771 in Franeker) (Collation: *8, 2*4 (+ 1 leaf signed 2*5); A-H8 (leaf H8 verso blank); 2A-N8, 2O4) (Photographs on request)