M.Tullii Ciceronis Epistolarum quae extant ad Familiares libri XVI. Notis perpetuis ad modum J. Minellii illustratarum. Editio quinta revisa, cui praefigitur Praefatio de auctoribus classicis adhuc edendis. Cum Privil. Regis Poloniae ac Elect. Saxoniae. de CICERO

Frankfurt, Leipzig (Francofurti & Lipsiae), Sumptibus Weidmanni, 1738. 12mo. (XIV, including frontispiece),921,(139 index) p. Half calf 14 cm (Ref: cf. Schweiger 2,163 for the 4th and 6th edition) (Details: Back ruled gilt and with 4 raised bands. Morocco shield in second compartment. The frontispiece depicts Cicero in his study, he is writing a letter. Title in red & black) (Condition: Binding slightly worn. Upper margin cut rather short. Small oval stamp on the front pastedown. Name on the front flyleaf, and from the lower margin of that same flyleaf a strip of 1.3 cm has been cut) (Note: This school edition of Cicero's letters to his friends, the 'Epistulae ad Familiares', was made in the manner made popular by the Dutch schoolmaster Johannes Min-Ellius, ca. 1625-1670. Minellius, or Min-ellius, produced several school editions of Latin authors, such as Vergil, Florus, Horace, Terentius and Ovid, with ample annotations in easy Latin. One seldom sees a school edition of Min-Ellius in good condition. Minellius was educated at the Erasmianum at Rotterdam, and was until his death a Praeceptor at the same school. At the end of the 17th and in the 18th century his editions were widely used, not only on Dutch grammar schools, but also on German, English and Danish schools. After that they were barred from the schools because they were too unscientific, and offered too much help. They were esteemed to be 'pontes asinorum'. Nevertheless they were successful. The publisher Weidmann obviously wanted to exploit this success. Schweiger mentions a second edition of 1713 published by Gleditsch in Leipzig. The third, fourth, fifth and the sixth edition was published by Weidmann, in 1723, 1732, 1738, 1756. § The Roman politician and author Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C., was a prolific letterwriter. His correspondence, which is of great historical value, varies from 'formal dispatches and pamphlets to hurried notes'. It is from his letters 'that we learn what Latin as spoken ordinarily by men of culture was like in that age'. (H.J. Rose, 'A Handbook of Latin literature', London 1967, p. 193) Cicero's Epistulae ad Familiares consist of 16 books, which not only contain Cicero's own letters, but also a large number of replies of his correspondents) (Provenance: On the pastedown the stamp: 'Katedral Skolans Bibliotek, Lund'. On the front flyleaf in ballpoint: 'Lennart Hakanson', 1939-1987, professor of Latin at the university of Uppsala) (Collation: A-Z12, Aa-Xx12, Yy2) (Photographs on request)