19th Century, Antique, Mandingo Mandinka Chief's Slave and Gold Trader's Sword With Tattooed-Leather Covered Wooden Scabbard

A most scarce and original African slave and gold trader chieftain's sword

The Manding (Mandingo) are West African people. Their traditional slaver's sword comprises a sabre like blade, a guardless leather grip and wide expanded scabbard with exquisite tattooed leather work.
This example is a fine example of very nice quality and most finely tattooed.

It has a 16 inches long curved blade, leather grip and leather scabbard with leaf shaped widening tip, entirely tooled tattooed and decorated. Of special interest is the finely bound and decorated leather work. These weapons are well known for their rare leather-work and the tattooing applied to the leather of the scabbards. The iron work skills are of black-smith quality.

Slave raiding, capture and trading in the Mandinka regions existed in significant numbers long before the European colonial era, as is evidenced in the memoirs of the 14th century Moroccan traveller and Islamic historian Ibn Battuta. Slaves were part of the socially stratified Mandinka people, and several Mandinka language words, such as Jong or Jongo refer to slaves. There were fourteen Mandinke kingdoms along the Gambia River in the Senegambia region during the early 19th century, for example, where slaves were a part of the social strata in all these kingdoms.

Scholars have offered several theories on the source of the transatlantic slave trade of Mandinka people. According to Boubacar Barry, a professor of History and African Studies, chronic violence between ethnic groups such as Mandinka people and their neighbours, combined with weapons sold by slave traders and lucrative income from slave ships to the slave sellers, fed the practice of captives, raiding, manhunts, and slaves. The victimised ethnic group felt justified in retaliating. Slavery was already an accepted practice before the 15th century. As the demand grew, states Barry, Futa Jallon led by an Islamic military theocracy became one of the centres of this slavery-perpetuating violence, while Farim of Kaabu (the commander of Mandinka people in Kaabu) energetically hunted slaves on a large scale. Martin Klein (a professor of African Studies) states that Kaabu was one of the early suppliers of African slaves to European merchants

Many blades were taken by the Mandingo and fitted from European weapons, such as sabres and short cutlasses. .

In general, these remain primarily considered Mandingo weapons, and from regions in Mali. These were of course invariably mounted with European sabre blades. Mandingo Tribe (also known as the Mandinka, Mande, or the Malinke Tribes) were the traders of the African West Coast, trading primarily in gold and slaves.
In 1324, Mansa Musa who ruled Mali, went on Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan carrying gold. Shihab al-Umari, the Arabic historian, described his visit and stated that Musa built mosques in his kingdom, established Islamic prayers and took back Maliki school of Sunni jurists with him. According to Richard Turner – a professor of African American Religious History, Musa was highly influential in attracting North African and Middle Eastern Muslims to West Africa

Picture in the gallery of a Mandingo Slave Trader Chieftain, standing next to his boy sword bearer, carrying his very same form of 'tattooed' sword. One, from an original collection of weapons we recently acquired.

Overall the leather on this sword in in exceptional condition and beautifully decorated.

Early medeavil painting in the gallery of Mansa Musa's visit to Mecca in 1324 CE with large amounts of gold, that not unsurprisingly attracted many Middle Eastern Muslims and Europeans to Mali.  read more

Code: 17969

A Stunning Antique, 19th Century, Colonial Walking Stick of Carved and Turned Horn, Inlaid With Circular Pattern Design

A heavy quality stick of most attractive form and fine quality. Every other portrait of a Georgian, Victorian, or Edwardian gentleman, shows some nattily dressed fellow with a walking stick pegged jauntily into the ground or a slim baton negligently tucked under the elbow. The dress cane was the quintessential mark of the dandy for three centuries, part fashion accessory, part aid to communication, part weapon, and of course, a walking aid. A dandy, historically, is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.

Previous manifestations of the petit-maitre (French for "small master") and the Muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost, but the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated cynical reserve, yet to such extremes that novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined cynicism as "intellectual dandyism". Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle wrote in Sartor Resartus that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man". Honore De Balzac introduced the perfectly worldly and unmoved Henri de Marsay in La fille aux yeux d'or (1835), a part of La Comedie Humaine, who fulfils at first the model of a perfect dandy, until an obsessive love-pursuit unravels him in passionate and murderous jealousy.

Charles Baudelaire defined the dandy, in the later "metaphysical" phase of dandyism, as one who elevates esthetics to a living religion, that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking Dandyism is a form of Romanticism. Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind."

The linkage of clothing with political protest had become a particularly English characteristic during the 18th century. Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protest against the levelling effect of egalitarian principles, often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat". Paradoxically, the dandy required an audience, as Susann Schmid observed in examining the "successfully marketed lives" of Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, who exemplify the dandy's roles in the public sphere, both as writers and as personae providing sources of gossip and scandal. Nigel Rodgers in The Dandy: Peacock or Enigma? Questions Wilde's status as a genuine dandy, seeing him as someone who only assumed a dandified stance in passing, not a man dedicated to the exacting ideals of dandyism.

36.5 inches  read more

Code: 15659

A Beautiful Antique African Tribal Carved Paddle-Spear Possibly of the Itsekiri People Or Even Benin

One of a matched pair we acquired but we are selling separately. In carved native wood with geometric carving covering one paddle side, the other side is different . This is a dance paddle of the kind used in ceremonies by the Itsekiri people of the Niger delta. The river was at the centre of tribal society and economy – it provided food and transport for the communities who lived in the area. Canoes were an extremely important part of traditional society and so the paddle was an important symbol for prosperity. Local people relied on the river for their quality of life and believed in water spirits. This paddle is decorated with intricate carving and may have been used in ceremonial dances. Alternatively, it may have been made for trading with Europeans as ethnic objects became fashionable possessions. Although African, like Oceanic art it is often infused with ancestral spirits, as well as spirits of water, air and land. These spirits are contacted in ceremonies to ensure fertility, or invoke protection from famine, disease or enemies.

Sometimes these invocations serve extremely practical purposes. There was a ceremony in Papua New Guinea where ancestral spirits were activated in a carved wooden crocodile. Men carrying the crocodile were then led, like people holding a divining rod are led, to the home of a local murderer.
African and Oceanic art is not only made for decoration. It is made to be used as a tool in the culture. Cubist painters, and especially Surrealists, were moved by the power of Oceanic abstractions, as they were by traditional African art . This wonderful piece would make a stunning additional display of object d’art in any setting, albeit traditional or contemporary  read more

Code: 17919

A Most Scarce Edwardian Hampshire Yeomanry Carabiniers Regimental Silver Place Badge With 'Battle Honour' Scroll, South Africa 1900-1901

The Hampshire rose to the centre of a crowned oval bearing the title, Hampshire Yeomanry, backed by a pair of crossed rifles, with the 'Carabiniers' scroll across the rifle butts and surmounted by Edward VIIth's King's crown, with the regimental 'Battle Honour' scroll of South Africa 1900-1. Tension sprung silver half hoop at the rear to insert a card, menu or regimental seating place name. In very good condition for age.

Between 1794 and 1803, a large number of cavalry units such as the North Hampshire Yeomanry Cavalry, the New Forest Volunteer Cavalry, the Fawley Light Dragoons and the Southampton Cavalry were raised in southern England as independent groups of Yeomanry. The Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, proposed that the English Counties form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the country. These units were brought together under the collective title of North Hampshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry in 1834, renamed Hampshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry by 1848. The Regiment adopted the title 'Carabiniers' in 1887.

On 13 December 1899, the decision to allow volunteer forces serve in the Second Boer War was made. Due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December, 1899, the British government realized they were going to need more troops than just the regular army, thus issuing a Royal Warrant on 24 December 1899. This warrant officially created the Imperial Yeomanry. The Royal Warrant asked standing Yeomanry regiments to provide service companies of approximately 115 men each. In addition to this, many British citizens (usually mid-upper class) volunteered to join the new regiment.

The first contingent of recruits contained 550 officers, 10,371 men with 20 battalions and 4 companies, which arrived in South Africa between February and April, 1900. Upon arrival, the regiment was sent throughout the zone of operations. The Hampshire Yeomanry raised the 41st Company, 12th Battalion, and the first company left Southampton on 31 January 1900, bound for Cape Town  read more

Code: 25190

A Most Interesting & Beautiful Quality Victorian Walking Cane. With a Florid Repousse Silver Top, Carved Spiral Haft With Carved Bullet Inlays

Carved spiral twist body with a cross-hatched top section. The dress cane was the quintessential mark of the dandy for three centuries, part fashion accessory, part aid to communication, part weapon, and of course, a walking aid. A dandy, historically, is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.

Previous manifestations of the petit-maitre (French for "small master") and the Muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost, but the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated cynical reserve, yet to such extremes that novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined cynicism as "intellectual dandyism". Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle wrote in Sartor Resartus that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man". Honore De Balzac introduced the perfectly worldly and unmoved Henri de Marsay in La fille aux yeux d'or (1835), a part of La Comedie Humaine, who fulfils at first the model of a perfect dandy, until an obsessive love-pursuit unravels him in passionate and murderous jealousy.

Charles Baudelaire defined the dandy, in the later "metaphysical" phase of dandyism, as one who elevates esthetics to a living religion, that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking Dandyism is a form of Romanticism. Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind."

The linkage of clothing with political protest had become a particularly English characteristic during the 18th century. Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protest against the levelling effect of egalitarian principles, often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat". Paradoxically, the dandy required an audience, as Susann Schmid observed in examining the "successfully marketed lives" of Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, who exemplify the dandy's roles in the public sphere, both as writers and as personae providing sources of gossip and scandal. Nigel Rodgers in The Dandy: Peacock or Enigma? Questions Wilde's status as a genuine dandy, seeing him as someone who only assumed a dandified stance in passing, not a man dedicated to the exacting ideals of dandyism. 31.5 inches long  read more

Code: 23242

1917 US Bayonet, The *U.S. Model 1913 ‘1917’ Dated Remington Bayonet and Scabbard with Original Frog.

Excellent plus, and an exceptional example. Likely so good it would be impossible to improve upon.

The American U.S. Model 1913 dated 1917 Bayonet in leather and steel scabbard with frog button mount and rivetted leather frog. It has a nice blade with all it's original parkerised finish. Known as a 'sleeper', in the collecting market, in that it was put into storage in 1946 and hasn't seen the light of day since, we have just acquired a super collection of bayonets all in stored condition since the end of the war.

This is a superb 1913- 1917 pattern bayonet marked to the blade with 1917 over Remington in a circle on one side, and U.S. with the grenade and eagle head on the other. These bayonets were originally manufactured by the U.S. in WWI and acquired by the British in WWII for use mainly by the Home Guard.

Pattern 1913/17. In excellent order with frog mount. Made by Remington. The pattern of bayonet that was continually used in WW2 by the British Home Guard. With twin cuts in the wood grip added to differentiate for British forces that it was the American bayonet and not a British 1907 Wilkinson.

Originally the bayonet design was made for the British in September 1917 by Remington in the US as the 1913 Pattern intended to be issued with the P14 Rifle in .303 inch calibre. However, when America entered the war they changed production of the P14 rifle over to .30 inch calibre, at which point it became their M17 rifle. As the calibre change meant no alteration to the bayonet was required they basically took the unfinished/unshipped bayonets and made them American property by over-stamping the British marks with American marks, thus becoming M1917 bayonets.

The P14's principal combat use during World War I was as a sniper rifle, since it was found to be more accurate than the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield, either in standard issue form or with modified "fine-adjustment" aperture rearsights designated Pattern 1914 Mk I W (F) and Pattern 1914 Mk I* W (F) or, from April 1918, Aldis Pattern 1918 telescopic sights designated Pattern 1914 Mk I* W (T) (modified and telescopic sights were mainly used on Winchester-manufactured rifles, the Winchesters being thought to be of superior quality). During WW2 the rifle was also used again as a sniper rifle, the configuration being different from the World War I incarnation.

2 notches can be seen on the wooden handle as to distinguish it from SMLE bayonets as both rifles and blades were, though very similar incompatible with the other.  read more

Code: 25189

Stunning Victorian, Silver Hound's Head Walking Stick Of William Page Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley, PC, British Statesman, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Presented by John Bright, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster & Sherlock Holmes Connection

With lacquered hawthorn wood cane.

Was this 'Hound's Head' appearance on the walking stick, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, most famed Sherlock Holmes story, of the fiercesome and diabolical beast, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' serialized in the Strand Magazine?. According to family legend, the notorious 17th century Squire Richard Cabell inspired the character of Squire Hugo Baskerville, but it was the childhood memory of this very hounds head that was the inspiration of the diabolical beast. The likeness to the illustrations of the hound in Doyle’s original novel is unmistakable.

A most beautiful piece with great political history, of the Victorian Liberal Party, of Prime Minister Lord William Gladstone.

The recipient of the stick, from John Bright, was William Page Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley, PC (29 November 1801 – 10 July 1881). He was a British lawyer and statesman who served as a Liberal Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1868 and 1872 in William Ewart Gladstone's first ministry.

John Bright, the sticks original owner (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. In 1849 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster, and in 1851 was made Solicitor General for England and Wales and knighted. He was the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was he who first used the phrase ‘England, mother of Parliaments, and another ‘flogging a dead horse’ ‘

A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn Laws. In partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Great Britain and the Second French Empire. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.

Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War; he also opposed William Ewart Gladstone's proposed Home Rule for Ireland. He saw himself as a spokesman for the middle class and strongly opposed the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the political privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland, and began land reform that would turn land over to the Catholic peasants. He coined the phrase "The mother of parliaments."

The hounds head top of the walking stick, is engraved on one reverse panel J.B {John Bright}, and W.B {William Bright, was John's son, also a Liberal politician} and on the other side of the hound's head is engraved, W. Wood { the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain} in a panel on the obverse beneath the hound's head.

The head was, 'supposedly', the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Hound of the Baskervilles'

Doyle was educated at the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst in Lancashire, which may be the initial connection to John Bright. One might conjecture that Doyle, as a young impressionable boy, saw Bright's hound's head cane {before he gave it to William Wood} maybe, on his {Bright's} visit to Hodder Place School in Lancashire.

This story was imparted to us as part of the family legend of the hound’s head stick's past illustrious history. Of course, there is absolutely no written evidence of this being the case, but it does seem, a most intriguing possibility.

It was also meant to be an accurate likeness of a a beloved hound that belonged to John Bright. John Bright took his hound to Doyle’s prep school when he visited.  read more

Code: 25176

A Dyak Of Borneo, Tribesman's Mandau. A Tribal Head Hunter's Sword, From Kalimantan Island

A Dyak sword mandau, swollen Single edged blade flat on one side and slightly tapered on the other with inlaid dots. A scarce Mandau of the Dayak people, of Borneo, Indonesia. With carved hilt, complete with some tufts hair. Traditional blade with convex obverse and concave reverse. The handle and sheath of this Dayak sword is made of wood and are both decorated with waxed and braided rattan, which afterwards was richly decorated with many decorations such as: Goath hair, beads, rattan wickerwork, teeth from monkeys and wild boars.
The whole is also richly decorated with painted signs, such as beringjan, circles, leeches, dashes and zigzag lines.The blade was apparently designed convex in such a way as the head could be decapitated more easily by a swinging arc while running. The last photo in the gallery is a period photo of an indigenous Head Hunter, holding his 'prize', achieved with his Mandau.

According to the Dayaks themselves, the most sacred and powerful mandaus are those which were made by Panglima Sempung and Panglima Bungai, who are considered to be the two highest skilled masters.
The mandau is one of the most romanticised, albeit macabre, weapons of Borneo. The way of life of the Dayak aborigines, maintaining their ancient customs, habits and religious beliefs, has always involved the taking of heads. They became feared as head-hunters and only in recent years has the practice been “largely” abandoned. (Officially, headhunting doesn’t exist in Borneo despite the occasional report of an isolated jungle beheading). The swords are also “working” swords, capable of separating a branch from a jungle tree as much as a head from man.
Literature:
Art of Island Southeast Asia, The Fred and Rita Richmann Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New-York). FLORINA H. CAPISTRANO. Ed Baker, 155p, 1994.
Forgotten Islands of Indonesia, The Art & Culture of the Southeast Moluccas. NICO DE JONGE & TOOS VAN DIJK. 160p, 1995.
Age: Est. from early-mid 20th century

The Engraving of the Dyak Method Of Drying Heads is from the Illustrated London News {Public Domain}  read more

Code: 25186

Original. Most Rare, A1929 Zeppelin Orientfahrt Over Egypt. The Zeppelin's Oriental Flight Over The Pyramids & Sphinx'. An Awarded Table Medal In Solid, Fine Silver. Len Deighton, World Renown Thriller & Spy Novelist Wrote a Book on The Very Flight

Only the second we have had or seen in 25 years. the only other we have seen is in the Landesmuseum in Wurttemberg.

Of all the medals issued in Europe for the very significant aeronautical occasions involving balloons and airships, this is one of the most artistically beautiful, capturing the flight over the great pyramids spectacularly in the typical Art Deco style. Just regard the amazing font, simple elegant but unique to that brief period. It was just a few short years since Carter had discovered the finest and fabulous golden treasures ever excavated in the history of the world, from the tomb of the boy king, the Pharoah Tutankhamen, and just three years before the great Boris Karloff starred in the iconic Hollywood movie, The Mummy.
Egypt and the art it inspired was all the rage around the world, in the news, art, film and decor, and this is just a fabulous representation of that amazing period.

This is a very rare and valuable medal, in super condition, made in fine silver, awarded and issued in 1929, for Dr. Hugo Eckener, depicting the Orientfahrt Orient flight of the airship Graf Zeppelin in 1929 Another rare surviving example of this fine medal is in the Landesmuseum in Wurttemberg.

In Britain it is regarded that a medal is only a wearable decoration, worn using either a chest ribbon, neck ribbon, or sash, or with a rear mounted uniform dress mounting pin, but in Europe, a medal is more often than not a display piece, issued for the same reasons as a wearable medal, for individuals as a reward, for commemoration or celebration, but not for personal adornment. Either displayed in a table mounted glass case or free standing cabinet.

On 24/03/1929 - the LZ127 Graf Zeppelin Orient Flight was launched for the reintroduction of air flight post-office mail.
Len Deighton, world renown thriller and spy novelist, under his psuedonym Cyril Deighton, wrote a rare and desirable book on this very flight, due to his love of airships and philately.

The Orientfahrt is distinguished for being one of the most controversial - in purely philatelic terms - of the Graf Zeppelin's history, mostly because there are no detailed sources of the flight that are completely reliable. The book records in great detail the flight from Germany which was like a theatrical event, where dinner was served over the Dead Sea and breakfast would be over the Acropolis; the ship subsequently flew over Rome, Naples and Cyprus.
Dropping mail at Jaffa, Athens, Budapest, Vienna
And flew over Palestine and Egypt.

Dr Eckner Born in Flensburg in 1868. Hugo Eckener came into contact with Count Zeppelin as a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung through one of his reports on the Zeppelin airship. This resulted in a long-term cooperation. At the end of the 1890s, Eckener moved from Flensburg to Friedrichhafen and became tour leader and authorized representative of the German Airship Company (DELAG), founded in 1909. After the death of Count Zeppelin, Eckener awoke the interest in airships through the Atlantic crossing of the Zeppelin 126 and the world tour of LZ 127 in the 1920s. Between 1931 and 1937 a regular transatlantic regular service between Frankfurt, the USA and Brazil with the two Zeppelinen 127 and 129 was furnished.

The front of the medal from 1929 shows the bust of Eckener to the left. The back shows an airship over the sphinx and pyramids, behind the rising sun. See in reference to this medal; Hans Kaiser, 1998: medals, plaques, badges of German aviation. The coined chronicle of the German aviation, Gutersloh, S. 137 No. 494.1 &
Kienast, Gunter W., 1967: The medals of Karl Goetz, Cleveland, Ohio, S. II, 284 S.: No. op.428  read more

Code: 22151

Imperial Roman 400 ad. Aur.Theodosii Macrobii, v. cl. & Inlustris, Opera Published London 1694. Macrobius Is Historically Important Because He Rescued Opinions And Passages From Works That Have Been Long Lost

by Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, Johannes Isacius Pontanus, Johannes van Meurs, Jacobus Gronovius. First printing in England. Published by Dring and Harper of Fleet St. Imprimateur Rob. Ridgely, Feb 25, 169 1/2. 1694 Editio Novissima, Cum Indice Rerum & Vocum Locupletissimo. Calf leather, overall worn, with a spine with four raised bands.
Macrobius, ca. 400, is considered to be one of the last pagan Roman authors. His most important work is the Saturnalia, an account of a long dicussion held during a symposium on the occasion of the Saturnalia. The subjects discussed are grammar, philology, mythology, history. Macrobius also produced a commentary on the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero. The work of this late antique writer is important because he rescued opinions and passages from works that have been lost.

The Dutch classical scholar Johannes Isaac Pontanus, 1571-1639, was born at sea (hence his name), when his parents were on their way to Denmark. There he was for some time a helper of Tycho Brahe (NNBW I,1417). In 1606 he became professor of Mathematics at the University of Harderwijk. His edition of Macrobius, which included also notes of the Dutch scholar Johannes Meursius, dates from 1597, a second edition from 1628. § This edition of 1670 was produced by the young Dutch scholar Jacobus Gronovius, 1645-1716, after having finished his studies at the University of Leiden under his father Johannes Fredericus Gronovius, 1611-1671, who was professor of Greek and History from 1658, and from 1665 librarian of the University Library of Leiden. It was Jacobus' first important scholarly feat. In the preface Gronovius tells us that his father allowed him to inspect and cleanse ancient manuscripts, and how he conceived the plan to collate two rather old Macrobius manuscripts that were in a bad shape. ('duorum (.) MStorum situ & squalore horrentium, satis tamen antiquam manum ostendentium')
Later, in 1679, Jacobus succeeded his father as professor of History and Greek)

The leather binding is worn and aged, but very nice and original and it reflects the age and status of this work so much so that we recommend it is left as is, and not rebound. Of course this is a subjective opinion and can be ignored.  read more

Code: 23302