Poetae Latini Minores
by
| Poetae Latini Minores: ex Editione Petri Burmanni Fideliter Expressi | |
 Title page from Poetae Latini Minores: ex Editione Petri Burmanni Fideliter Expressi, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Published | Glasguae: In aedibus Academicis : Excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis |
| Date | 1752 |
| Language | Latin |
| Pages | [4], 151, [1] |
| Desc. | 8vo (15 cm.) |
This work is a collection of significant works by minor Latin poets. The first poet featured is Gratius (Grattius) whose poem Cynegeticon describes a hunt or “The Chase,” as well as the proper offerings and prayers which must be given to the gods to achieve success.[1] Second, is the poet M. Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus whose first work presented is the remaining fragments of his own Cynegeticon. This is then followed by fragments of his Bucolicon, a common pastoral theme for Roman poets. The third poet is T. Calpurnius Siculus who writes his own Bucolicon. Then comes Rutilius Claudius Namatianus who “was a wealthy and distinguished Gaul” residing in Rome in the fifth century CE.[2] Two of his books of poetry are extant, with over seven hundred lines in the elegiac meter.[3] Included in this work is Namatianus’ Iter, which follows the bucolic theme of the other works included in this collection. At this point in this collection of Latin poetry, the theme changes to medicine. The two Latin poets, Q. Serenus Samonicus and Marcellus, each have a set of poems entitled De Medicina, which are included. In a somewhat similar scientific theme, Q. Rhemnius Fannius’ poems have the overall title of Palaemonis de Ponderibus et Mensuris (“Palaemon of weights and measures"). The final Latin poet included is Sulpicia whose short Satyra (“Satire”) ends the poetic compilation.
This work is a collection of poems by minor Latin poets published in Latin by two well-known and regarded Scottish publishers, Robert and Andrew Foulis.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Poetae minores. 12mo Foul. and given by Thomas Jefferson to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The Foulis Press published an octavo edition of the minor Latin poets in 1752. It is the only edition they published.[4] Both George Wythe's Library[5] on LibraryThing and the Brown Bibliography[6] list this edition.
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary full calf. Spine elaborately decorated with gilt flowers and red morocco label with gilt lettering. Boards feature triple fillets, edges gilt.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ “Grattius: Cynegeticon.” by Bill Thayer at the University of Chicago.
- ↑ Gilber Norwood, “Rutilius Claudius Namatianus.” Phoenix 1, supplement to vol. 1 (Spring 1947): 37.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Philip Gaskell, A Bibliography of the Foulis Press, 2nd ed. (Winchester, Hampshire, England: St Paul's Bibliographies, 1986), 174.
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 13, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
