CAMERARIUS, Joachim

by Joachim Camerarius

£3,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

First editions of Camerarius important commentaries on Books I and II of the Iliad. These are regarded as the first attempt to write a commentary on Homer in the early modern period. Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574) was German classical scholar who taught Latin and Greek at Nuremberg and reorganised the Universities of Tubingen and Leipzig. A close friend of Melanchthon, Camerarius helped the reformer to draft the Augsburg Confession. Camerarius published in Strasbourg (1538) an extensive commentary on book one of the Iliad followed in 1540 by a commentary on book two. Both commentaries contained the Greek original accompanied by a Latin hexameter translation. These slim volumes were meant for instruction, with prefaces exhorting readers to the study of Homer. The translation ( ) was clearly intended as an aid for students wading through the difficult text. These commentaries, it has been observed, were meant for the education of young students. (Ben-Tov) The two works are structured in a similar way: after a dedication, they both contain a preface, then a detailed commentary this comprises a summary of the books, a grammatical and syntactical analysis of the text with references to ancient authors and antiquarian details and finally the Greek text followed by Camerarius translation. The preface to Book I is particularly interesting, featuring a brief biography of Homer, an explanation of the Iliad s title, a list of its contents and of ancient commentators. A Latin translation

• Binding: Hardcover

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