Author: [Suicer] Suicerus, Johann Caspar:
Title: Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, e Patribus Graecis ordine alphabetico [...] Editio secunda, priori emendatior, elegantior & longe auctior […]
Description: Amstelaedami [Amsterdam]: Apud J. Henricum Wetstenium & Gul. Smith, 1728. 2 vols., folio, pp. [8], cols. 1476; pp. [iv], cols. 1654, pp. [68]. Main text printed in double columns. Vol. I has engraved frontispiece ('G.F.L. Debrie inv. Cl. Duflos fecit 1728'), title-page in red and black (vol.I) with engraved printer's device with motto: 'Terar dum prosim' (both vols.). Engraved head-piece to Dedication ('G.F.L. Debrie inv. et del. F. Morellon La Care sculpsit 1728') incorporating coat of arms of Sir Richard Ellys (1688-1742), the dedicatee, with motto: 'Aperto vivere voto'. Woodcut initials. With half-titles (in vol. I, bound after the title-page). Occasional light toning, a few ink smudges to vol.II. Contemporary blind-stamped Dutch vellum, title inked to spine, sprinkled edges. Vellum a little grubby, small area of turn-in lifting inside the upper board of vol.II, very good. Ink inscription to ffep of vol.I: 'John Duke Coleridge, from his loving Father & Mother, for his birthday, Dec. 3, 1860, with their prayers for his health & happiness'. Inscription 'J.D. Coleridge' to vol. II. Small leather label with 'D.C.D.' and a cockerel crest in gilt to each front paste down, with some transfer to the ffep. Small bookseller's label to front pastedown vol. I, 'Sold by C.J. Stewart, 11 King William Street, W. Strand, London.' The second edition of this important resource for the study of Greek patristics, first printed in 1682 (and with a further edition following in 1746). Johann Kaspar Suicer (1620-84) was a Swiss reformed theologian and a philologist. John Duke Coleridge (1820-1894) English lawyer, judge and politician, was great-nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had owned a copy (now in the British Library) and said of it: "Unfortunately I have none of the Greek Fathers—neither have I the Septuagint—but I have found much that I want, in Suicerus's Thesaurus Patrum, which I was lucky enough to buy for it's [sic] weight at a Druggist's—" (letter to John Prior Estlin, 26 July 1802). Graesse VI (pt.I) 525; Brunet V 586.

Keywords: Early Printing (to c.1800, all subjects);Classics & Antiquity


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