Q. Horatius Flaccus, ex recensione & cum notis atque emendationibus Richardi Bentleii. Editio tertia.

Berlin, Weidmann, 1869. 8vo. 2 volumes: XXVIII,518,(2); 710 p. Half cloth. 22.5 cm (Rebound. Paper yellowing. First and last leaves browning) (Note: Richard Bentley, 1662-1742, from 1700 Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, was doubtless one of the greatest names among classical scholars of Europe in the 18th century. He is most famous for his 'Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris' (London 1697/99), a work that, according to Sandys, 'marks an epoch in the History of scholarship'. He made significant advances in the study and textual criticism of Horace. In 1711 he published an edition of Horace 'in which the traditional text is altered in more than 700 passages, a masterly work, which however, does more credit to the logical force of his intellect than to his poetic taste. It is here that we find his celebrated dictum: 'nobis et ratio et res ipsa centum codicibus potiores sunt'. (Sandys 2,406) This citation is however not complete. The wise words which follow after the comma (potiores sunt,) are mostly omitted: 'praesertim accedente Vaticani veteris suffragio'. Some of his 700/800 emendations have been accepted, but the majority was rejected by the early 20th century as unnecessary.)