Difference between revisions of "Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae"

Latest revision as of 07:47, 1 May 2024

by Basil Faber

Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae
Title page from Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Basil Faber
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	Lipsiae: Apud Thomam Fritsch
Date	1710
Edition
Language	Latin, German, Greek
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	[8], 2650 columns, [183] pages
Desc.	Folio (37 cm.)
Location	Shelf M-5
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

Basil Faber (1520-1576) was a Lutheran schoolmaster and theologian born in Sorau (modern Żary), in lower Lusatia. Faber attended the University of Wittenberg, studying under Philipp Melanchthon as a "pauper gratis.'"^[1] His best known work, Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae, was "designed to aid composers in imitating classic authors."^[2] A Latin encyclopedic dictionary for German readers, it was used as a standard text for German classical education for more than two centuries.^[3] Faber published the first edition in 1571. The two-volume folio edition edited by John Henry Leich (Frankfurt, 1749) is considered the best edition.^[4]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Basilii Fabri thesaurus eruditionis Scholasticae. fol." This was one of the titles kept by Thomas Jefferson and later sold to the Library of Congress in 1815. Both the Brown Bibliography^[5] and George Wythe's Library^[6] on LibraryThing include the 1710 edition published in Leipzig based on Millicent Sowerby's entry in Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson.^[7] Unfortunately, the volume owned by Wythe no longer exists to verify the edition. Despite this, the Wolf Law Library purchased an available copy of the 1710 edition.

Initial capital, page one.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary leather with blind rules to boards. Spine features five raised bands, a red leather label with gilt lettering and a former shelf label, "2285 C." Purchased with the George Wythe Boswell-Caracci Room Acquisition Fund.

Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

See also

• Jefferson Inventory
• Wythe's Library

References

1. ↑ "Faber, Basil," in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., ed. Franklin Hopper and Hugh Chisholm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), 10:111.
2. ↑ "Art. VI: Harper's Latin Dictionary," The Methodist Quarterly Review 32 (July 1880): 542.
3. ↑ "Basil Fabri's famous Thesaurus 1710" in Stockholms Auktionsverk Online, accessed May 18, 2018 (http://online.auktionsverket.se/1509/327833-basil-fabri-s-famous-thesaurus-1710/?fr=la)
4. ↑ The General Biographical Dictionary Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation, rev and enl. by Alexander Chalmers (London: Printed for J. Nichols and Son, 1814), 14:1; "Art. VI: Harper's Latin Dictionary, 542.
5. ↑ 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
6. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on May 21, 2018.
7. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 5:73-74 [no.4765].