Salmasius (Claudius)

Historiae Augustae Scriptores VI.

Aelius Spartianus, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Iulius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, Aelius Lampridius, Flavius Vopiscus. Claudius Salmasius Ex Veteribus Libris Recensuit, Et Librum Adiecit Notarum Ac Emendationum. Quib. Adiunctae Sunt Notae Ac Emendationes Isaaci Casauboni Iam Antea Editae.

Title printed in red and black with a large engraved vignette of a galleon; woodcut ornaments and initials.

Three parts bound in one. Folio. [355 x 223 x 98 mm]. [6]ff, 95, [2], 96-153, 156-255, [41], 519, [73], [8], 258, [22] pp. Contemporary English binding of dark calf, the covers with a blind double fillet border and at the centre the gilt arms of William Herris, flanked with the initials "W.H." and with the initials "P.H." above. The spine divided into seven panels by raised bands, the edges of the boards tooled with a gilt fillet, pasteboards and vellum sewing strips and strengtheners exposed at front and rear, green edges, with the initials "W.H." tooled in gilt at the centre of the fore-edge. (Joints expertly repaired by Bernard Middleton, a little worn, rear free endleaves partly torn away). Stock no. ebc2575.
Paris: [Hieronymus Drouart], 1620.

With the half title. There is some minor soiling and damp-staining, and a few small marginal tears, not affecting the text. There are some early ink marginal annotations, a few of which have had a corrosive effect on the paper. It is a very good copy.

This is the first edition of Salmasius's important recension of this collection of the lives of 30 Roman Emperors, from Hadrian to Numerian, for which he used a 9th century manuscript written at Fulda and now preserved at Bamberg, a direct copy of the prime source held at the Vatican. Salmasius's copious notes display "not only massive erudition but massive good sense as well; his perception of the meaning of the author is commonly very acute and his corrections of the text are frequently highly felicitous". In this edition he added Isaac Casaubon's notes to his own. Claudius Salmasius / Claude de Saumaise (1588-1653) was a classical scholar who became professor at Leiden in 1631, taking the vacant chair last head by Scaliger. He was widely influential among his contemporaries but is best known for his polemic with John Milton, prompted by his Defensio Regia Pro Carolo I of 1649. Milton's reply of 1651, Pro Pupulo Anglicano Defensio trounced Salmasius, or as Milton's nephew put it: "our little English David had the courage to undertake this great French Goliath to whom he gave such hit in the forehead, that he presently staggered, and soon after fell...".

This volume has the most intriguing provenance. The arms and the initials "W.H." are those of William Herris (d.1622). David Pearson refers to Herris in Provenance Research in Book History, p.125, and illustrates an example of his initials on the fore-edge of another volume as fig.4.29. Herris had been a fellow commoner of Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA 1612) and he gave a number of his books to the college in 1622. The initials "P.H." may stand for Pembroke Hall. While a number of these volumes remain at Pembroke, others have since migrated and John Morris found examples with the arms and both sets of initials in the Parham collection and at Emmanuel, Cambridge and the Birmingham Oratory.

There is an ink inscription inside the front board: "Ex dono Dni Petri Wentworth, summa spei juvenis, mihi charissimi pupilli", and the name Wentworth at the head of the title. Another later owner has added the note: "that renouned Thomas Earle of Strafford, and eminent martyr for his loyalty to his soveraign, King Charles the first". He has got this wrong, as the Wentworth who was given this volume was not Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford (1593-1641), it was Sir Peter Wentworth (1592-1675). Sir Peter has an entry in DNB which chronicles his political career - he was made a Knight of the Bath at Charles I's coronation but became a republican and was a member of the Council of State during the Commonwealth (though he did not always go along with Oliver Cromwell). He was an intimate friend of John Milton, and bequeathed him £100, with reference to his writings against none other than our Salmasius. There is a long inscription in Latin on a front flyleaf and various notes in the margins. There is also the signature of "Jo. Waugh" on the half-title.