For
your consideration:
For
your consideration:
Ancient
Marvels of Engineering — Illustrated with
15 Plates
Explained by an Ancient!
Frontinus, Sextus Julius. De
aqvaedvctibvs vrbis Romae commentarivs[.] Antiquæ fidei restitutus, atque
explicatus opera et stvdio Ioannis Poleni. Patavii: Apud
Ioannem Manfrè, 1722. 4to (25.9 cm, 10.25").
[4] ff., 32, 296 pp., [2] ff.; 15 plts., illus. 
Single-click
any image where a hand appears on 
The editio princeps of this work was published at Rome, ca. 1486, Joannes Sulpitius editor. This edition, edited by Polenus, is handsomely printed with
15
engraved plates including a portrait of Frontinus, a facsimile
of the first page of the famous Monte Cassino manuscript of Frontinus (printed
in red and
black), plans of the city of Rome and of the parts of Latium whence the Romans
drew water, 
drawings
and plans of aqueducts, and three tables. The editor has provided
ample footnotes and has appended the notes of Joannes Opsopoes. The printer
has ornamented his edition with xylographic head- and tailpieces and initials,
as well as two of his woodcut devices: a compass with the motto "Labore
et tempore"
on the title page, and a phoenix with the motto "Post Fata resurgo" at the
colophon.
Lindsey
Davis made Frontinus a major character in one of her Marcus Didius Falco
mystery novels, Three
Hands in the Fountain (1997). Portrayed
there as being quite a guy, he actually acts as a co-detective in the case — one
in which Rome's aqueducts figure largely and grimly. We plan to enclose
a brand new paperback copy of her enjoyable book in the box, when Frontinus's
antiquarian tome goes off to its buyer.
• Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II,
368. On Frontinus, see Oxford Companion to Classical Literature,
240. Recent vellum with ties, the author and short title lettered
in ink on the spine. Light waterstaining and some instances
of soiling in the margins, especially along the top edge; library
rubber-stamp on versos of title-leaf and last leaf. The title-leaf has some
very shallow chipping to the outer margin. All edges speckled red. 
A
handsome, interesting volume.
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