Aristeæ Historia LXXII Interpretum. Accessere Veterum Testimonia De Eorum Versione

8vo. pp. [4], 144, plate. Signatures: [π]³, A-S⁴ ; R unsigned. Calf. Ornamented gilded spine. Parallel Greek and Latin texts. The frontispiece is signed: MBurg. sculp., i.e. Michael Burghers.

 

This work is an anthology of condemnations of the Letter of Aristeas (see Bib# 690536/Fr# 71 in this collection) by Humphrey Hody (see Bib# 4102624/Fr# 73) and subsequent interlocutors, among them Henry Aldrich and Edward Bernard. The current volume contains a presentation inscription from Edward Bernard to the Dutch scholar Nicolas Witsen, a compatriot of Isaac Vossius, who had attacked Hody’s rebuttal of Aristeas in 1686 (see Bib# 4102625/Fr# 74 in this collection). Includes, with a separate title page, ‘Testimonia aliquot scriptorum orientalium de LXXII interpretibus eorumque versione’. Both the account and the author are fictitious. See D. Wing (ed.), Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641–1700. 4 vols. New York, 1982-98 (2^nd ed.), A3683; E. Havens, “Babelic Confusion. Literary Forgery and the Bibliotheca Fictiva,” in W. Stephens & E. Havens (eds.), Literary forgery in early modern Europe, 1450-1800, Baltimore, 2018, pp. 42-44.

 

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