[GROTIUS, HUGO (1583-1645)]. Hugonis Grotii Annotationes in libros Evangeliorum. Cum tribus tractatibus & Appendice eo spectantibus. Amsterdami [Amsterdam], apud Joh. & Cornelium Blaeu, cIↄ Iↄ c xxxxI [1641].
Hardcover. First Edition. Leather-bound. Thick folio (2°) (320 x 260 mm), pp. [4], 1060; [1], 4-85, [39]. Signatures: A-Z⁶ Aa-Zz⁶ Aaa-Zzz⁶ Aaaa-Tttt⁶ Vuuu⁴ A-I⁶ K⁸. Latin text with some words and paragraphs in Greek and Arabic. Roman letter in lines of 43. Beautifully bound in contemporary blind-stamped vellum. Title-page printed in red and black and with woodcut device. Handsome engraved portrait of Grotius by Willem Delff after Michiel van Miereveld. Large decorative initials. Head- and tail-pieces. Initial and terminal blanks present. Index to rear in double columns. Corrigenda: [5] p. at end. Errata slip pasted to final page. Contains: - Annotationes in Libros Evangel (Matth, Marci, Lucae, Ioan) - Epistola Thessalon - Epistola Iohannis - Ad Apocalypseos - Ad Ephesios - Ad Iacobi - Explicatio Iohannes - Explicatio Decalogi - Appendix (...) de Antichristo - Elenchus Loc. Script. & Index - Corrigenda.
Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding tight and secure. Covers with some marks and stains. Contents remarkably clean. Limited contemporary annotations to just a few leaves. Scarce.
Note: Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was a prodigious Dutch lawyer. He entered Universityat Leyden at 12; and was appointed Historian of the States General at 18, and Advocate Fiscal at 24. He travelled to England in a diplomatic capacity in 1613, before becoming Pensionary of Rotterdam. His Arminian theology and attempts to facilitate peace between theologically-opposed factions earned him a life sentence in 1618; although he escaped to Paris in 1621. He attempted to return to Holland in 1631, but was banished and settled in Sweden. In 1635 he returned to Paris in an ambassadorial capacity for the Kingdom of Sweden. He was killed in a shipwreck on a voyagehomein 1645. Within his 'Annotations,' he applies philological criticism to the text of the Bible whilst contemporaneously moderating them with the assertion that (as in law) convention plays an enormously important role in theology, such that correct interpretation of the scriptures requires respect for the Church's traditions. [(Rogge, 168); USTC: 1013480].
