VERRIUS FLACCUS

M. Verrii Flacci quae extant. Et Sex. Pompei Festi de verborum significatione libri XX. Iosephi Scaligeri Iulii Caesaris F. in eosdem libros castigationes, recognitae & auctae.

      Lutetiae [ Paris ], apud Mamertum Patissonium, in officina Rob. Stephani, 1576 With woodcut device on both title-pages, pp (28), cccix, (1, blank), (24), (2, blank) ; ccxvi, (22), (2, blank) ; lxxv, 8vo, finely bound in full calf antique : with a small oval stamp on the title-page, otherwise a very good-nice copy, complete with the blank leaves X8 and Pp8. Adams V 589 (C only). “Verrius Flaccus (fl. 10 BC) … his great work 'De Verborum Significatu', the first Latin lexicon ever written … survives in the incomplete and fragmentary abridgement by Pompeius Festus (2nd cent. AD) … It appears to have been of the nature of an encyclopaedia, including 'not only lexicographical matter, but much information on points of history, antiquities, and grammar, illustrated by numerous quotations from poets, jurists, historians, old legal documents, and writers on religious or political antiquities." - Sandys I. 200. The second work comprises the scholia and annotations of the great French philologist Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), considered the greatest scholar of modern times.