AMMÔNIOU peri Homoiôn kai Diaphorôn lekseôn. De adfinium vocabulorum differentia. Accedunt opuscula nondum edita, Eranius Philo 'de Differentia Significationis'. Lesbonax 'de figuris grammaticis'. Incerti scriptores 'de soloecismo & barbarismo'. Lexicon 'de spiritibus dictionum, ex operibus' Tryphonis, Choerobosci, Theodoriti, etc. selectum. Ammonium, ope MS. primae editionis Aldinae, & aliunde, emaculavit & notis illustravit, reliqua ex codd. MSS. Bibliothecae Lugduno-Batavae nunc primum vulgavit Ludovicus Casparus Valckenaer. (Bound with:) Ludov. Casp. Valckenaer. Animadversionum ad Ammonium grammaticum libri tres. In quibus veterum scriptorum loca tentantur & emendantur. Accedit specimen scholiorum ad Homerum ineditorum, ex codice Vossiano Bibliothecae Lugduno-Batavae.

Leiden (Lugduno Batavorum), Apud Johannem Luzac, 1739. 8vo. 2 volumes in 1: (VIII),XXXI,(3),264; (VIII),249,(15 index),(2 blank) p. Vellum 20.5 cm (Ref: Hoffmann 1,125; Brunet 1,239; Ebert 536; Graesse 1,105) (Details: Six thongs laced through the joints. Both titles printed in red & black. Engraved printer's mark on title, designed by F. v. Bleyswyck, depicting a ship heading for Scylla and Charybdis; its motto: 'nec dextrorsum, nec sinistrorsum', or 'Neither to the right nor to the left', referring to Deuteronomium ch. V,32/33: 'Custodite igitur et facite quae praecepit Dominus Deus vobis: non declinabitis neque ad dexteram, neque ad sinistram: sed per viam, quam praecepit Dominus Deus vester, ambulabitis, ut vivatis, et bene sit vobis, et protelentur dies in terra possesionis vestrae') (Condition: Vellum age-tanned and slightly soiled. Small name on the title. Old ink inscription on the front flyleaf. Front hinge cracking, but strong; paper of pastedowns cracking) (Note: The Frisian scholar Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer, 1715-1785, was a pupil of his fellow Frisian Tiberius Hemsterhuis, and after him the greatest Dutch classical scholar of the 18th century. Hemsterhuis, 1685-1766, advised his students in Franeker and later in Leiden, to use especially the lexica of the ancient lexicographers. These works could be of great use for the understanding of textual problems and for the amending of texts of classical authors, and they were of great help to gain a profound knowledge of the Greek language and its vocabulary. For his first fruits Valckenaer chose an unpublished work of the Greek grammarian Ammonius, who lived probably in the first or second century A.D. This edition, the 'editio princeps' of 'De adfinium vocabulorum differentia' made his name. In the preface Valckenaer explains that Ammonius suffered grievous wrongs at the hand of French scholar/printer Henri Estienne who ignored his usefulness in the appendix of his celebrated 'Thesaurus Linguae Graecae' (1572), and who vexed and lacerated him in the preface of his 'De Atticae linguae seu dialecti idiomatis' (1573), and portrayed the ancient lexicographer as a careless ignoramus. ('omnibus modis Ammonium vexavit, & tam contumeliose laceravit, ut, in Ammonio exemplum & incuriae & inscitiae ponendum esse'. Praefatio p. XXV) Young Valckenaer announces that he is going to repair this 'gravissimam iniuriam'. For Valckenaer it is clear (liquido constet), that Ammonius penetrated deep into the nature of the Greek language and the true origin of words. (in interiorem Linguae indolem & veram vocum originem reliquis grammaticis omnibus ignoratam, sese penetravisse Ammonium') (Idem, eodem) The first part consists of the work of Ammonius and several other unpublished ancient grammatici, the second part consists of Valckenaer's notes on Ammonius, and a specimen of the scholia from the 'codex Vossianus'. The untertaking proved to be successful, because it resulted in his appointment as professor of Greek at the University of Franeker in 1741. (Gerretzen, Schola Hemsterhusiana, 1940, p. 205/6) (Collation: *-5*4, A-2K4; +4, A-2K4 (leaf 2K4 blank)) (Photographs on request)