Difference between revisions of "Aristophanis Comoediae (1783)"

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by Aristophanes

Aristophanis Comoediae (1783)
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library at the College of William & Mary.
Author	Aristophanes
Editor
Translator
Published	: Sumtibus J. G. Treuttel
Date	1783
Edition
Language
Volumes	volume set
Pages
Desc.

was one of the “leading comic dramatists” of Athens.^[1] He was considered a master of “Old Comedy” in his own time and remains popular today. Old Comedy has several distinguishing features including: an invented, original plot (in contrast to Greek tragedy which was based on well-known myths), and a fantastical setting which allowed the hero to accomplish the impossible.^[2] Aristophanes is believed to have written 40 plays, of which 11 survive. The plays are broad in their subject matter and examine contemporary Athenian politics (including the Peloponnesian War), philosophy, and the institutions of democracy including the jury system. Very little is known for certain about Aristophanes’ life beyond the date of production of his plays.^[3]

Aristophanis Comodiae contains Aristophanes’s 11 surviving plays, and fragments of others. These plays are: Acharnians, Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace, Birds, Lysistrata, Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria, Frogs, The Assemblywomen, and Wealth.

Aristophanes (c.450/460-385 BCE) was a celebrated poet, satirist, and comic playwright who lived in ancient Athens during the latter half its Golden Age and the commencement of the Peloponnesian_War Peloponnesian War. Little is known about Aristophanes’s life except from what is written in his plays and from Plato’s dialogs which make reference to him.^[4] From Aristophane's play Clouds, it is inferred that he was born in the township of Cydathenaeum near Athens around 450 B.C. at a time when Pericles was expanding Athens from a polis into an empire.^[5] In The Symposium, Plato features Aristophanes as one of many famous guests who gather at the home of Agathon the poet. He is portrayed as a jokester who is hung over from the previous evening and delights other guests with his sharp wit as well as his hiccups and sneezes.^[6] Yet it is clear that Plato held Aristophanes in high esteem. When Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse asked Plato for information regarding the culture and political institutions of Athens, Plato is said to have sent him Aristophanes's comedies.^[7]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Aristophanes Gr. Lat. 6.v. 8vo." and given by Thomas Jefferson to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The Brown Bibliography^[8] suggests that Wythe's copy matched the one Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress in 1815.^[9] According to Sowerby, Jefferson's octavo edition consisted of six volumes edited by Richard François Philippe Brunck — a three volume Greek set with Latin notes^[10] and a three volume Latin set.^[11] Unfortunately, neither Jefferson's copy nor Wythe's copy survive to verify which edition Wythe owned. George Wythe's Library^[12] on LibraryThing simply lists the three volume 1783 Greek set edited by Brunck.

See also

• Aristophanis Comoediae
• Jefferson Inventory
• Wythe's Library

References

1. ↑ Alan Sommerstein, “Aristophanes,” The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Hoboken: Wiley, 2012), accessed March 24, 2015.
2. ↑ Lois Spatz, Aristophanes (Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1978), 24.
3. ↑ Kenneth McLeish and Trevor R. Griffiths, A Guide to Greek Theatre and Drama (London: Methuen Drama, 2003), 195.
4. ↑ Aliprandini, Michael. "Aristophanes." Aristophanes (January 2009): 1. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed May 29, 2015).
5. ↑ Spatz, Lois. Aristophanes’ Comedy and the World of Athens. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978, 15-16.
6. ↑ Ibid.
7. ↑ Ibid.
8. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012, rev. May, 2014) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
9. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 4:548-549 [no.4575]. Jefferson's entry for his 1815 catalog is similar to the one in the inventory of Wythe's books, but includes vital information the Wythe entry lacks, "Aristophanes. Gr. Lat. Brunck. 6. v. 8^vo. Argentorati. 1783."
10. ↑ Aristophanes, Aristophanis Comoediae, edited by Richard François Philippe Brunch (Argentorati: Sumptibus Joh. Georgii Treuttel, bibliopolae, 1783).
11. ↑ Aristophanes, Aristophanis Comoediae in Latinum Sermonem Conversae, edited by Richard François Philippe Brunch (Argentorati: Apud socios bibliopolas Bauer & Treuttel, 1781.)
12. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 19, 2021.