Pausanias. Graeciae descriptio accurata, 2 parts in 1, collation: a-c⁴, A⁶, B-Z⁴, Aa-Zzzzz⁴ Aaaaaa-Tttttt²; [26], 898 pp., 899-943 numbered as columns, [76] pp., title in red and black with engraved printer's device, double column text in Greek and Latin, handsome contemporary Dutch vellum prize binding, covers within gilt frames, central gilt arms of the city of Amsterdam, lacking ties, joints cracked, folio (332 x 212mm.), Leipzig, Thomas Fritsch, 1696.

⁂ Monumental edition of this celebrated work, edited by Joachim Kühn, and supplemented with the Latin translation by the humanist Romolo Quirino Amaseo, which first appeared in Rome in 1547. The editio princeps had been published in 1516 by Aldus's heirs. "Since its rediscovery in the Renaissance Pausanias' work has been recognised as a valuable source for ancient Greece, a mine of antiquarian, historical and topographical information on various purposes. [...] From the seventeenth century onward visitors to Greece found Pausanias' work an excellent resource for the reconstruction of the country's ancient topography. Its usefulness for this purpose was easy to recognise, and by the early nineteenth century [...] Pausanias' Periegesis not only served as a travel guide but it was also used systematically to discover and identify ancient remains" (M. Pretzler, Pausanias. Travel Writing in Ancient Greece, London 2007, pp. 11-12). This copy is a fine example of a 'prize binding'.

Provenance: a printed leaf bound before the half-title states that this copy was given as a gift to Jan Vreelant 'ob spectatos in Graecis literis progressus', by the Rector of the Amsterdam Gymnasium in October 1734.

Literature: Brunet IV, 455; Schweiger I, 224: Dibdin II, 272 ( "emphatically and justly called the 'ed. opt. of Pausanias'").