4to. Frontispiece, (LII),92,(4);846,(119),(1 blank) p. Vellum 26.5 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 186700156; Schweiger 2,809/10; Brunet 4,722: 'bonne édition'; Dibdin 2,332; Graesse 5,343; Fabricius/Ernesti 2,416: 'optima editio') (Details: Back with 5 raised bands. Short title in the second compartment. Blind tooled boards. The engraved frontispiece depicts a pensive Pliny busy writing a letter. Title printed in red & black. The engraved printer's mark on the title shows a mole, flanked by Athena and Hermes; the motto reads: 'Vulgo caeca vocor. Video sed acutius ipso') (Condition: Nice copy. Vellum very slightly soiled. Vellum at the outer edge of the upper board very slightly damaged) (Note: The Roman civilian administrator Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, 61-112 A.D, published 9 books of literary letters, consisting of short essays, character sketches and sensible observations. The letters paint the high society of the young Roman empire. The tenth book contains Pliny's correspondence with the emperor Trajan. Pliny is famous for his description of the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The German classical scholar Gotlieb Cortius, or Kortte, 1698-1731, made his name producing editions of Latin authors, whose works were provided with very extensive commentaries, 'cum notis Variorum', in the manner of the Dutch scholar Petrus Burmannus, to whom this edition is actually dedicated. Such commentaries are 'Fundgruben' for the classical scholar. The students should bear in mind that the outdated commentaries were the work of scholars who knew their latin far beter than they do. Dibdin shows admiration for the work of Cortius. 'This' he says 'is a very critical and elaborate edition, calculated for those who wish to enter minutely into all the niceties of grammatical construction and historical illustration'. Ernesti says that this is a work 'quae est sane luculenta, et ut nunc est, optima editio'. Cortius died before he could finish the job. Most work was done by a pupil of Cortius, the young German philologist Paul Daniel Longolius, 1704-1779, from 1735 Rector of the Gymnasium in Hof (Saale). He published 3 ancient authors in an exemplary manner, the Letters of Pliny the Younger, Diogenes Laertius (1739), and Gellius (1741). (ADB 19,156/7) The edition of the letters and its commentary is preceded by a 70 pages long biography of Pliny by J. Masson, which was first published in Amsterdam in 1709. (Schweiger 2,818)) (Collation: pi1, *4 (minus leaf *4), 2*-7*4 (leaf 7*4 blank); (a)-(m)4; A-5O4, a-p4 (leaf p4 verso blank)) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)