Description
Theoprastus. Theophrasti, Eresi Characteres ethici, siue morum descriptiones. Graecè & Latinè. Cum notis & Monitis Ioannis Angelii Werdenhagen I.C.C., Lugduni Batavorum, Ex Officinâ Ioannis Maire, MDCXXXII.
90 mm x 47 mm, in-32, 2 pt, three parts in one volume: Greek text printed in Greek, followed by the Latin translation by the Calvinist theologian Isaac Casaubon. The third part is the commentary of Johann Angelius von Werdenhagen.
Collation: [Initial blank(s) missing; 71 pages (verso blank); 98 pages; 3 blanks; 237 pages, errata of 2 pages; 2 concluding blanks]. Original vellum over paper boards, now darkened and worn from use. The numeral “19” is inked on the back at the head. Notation on the verso of the final blank: “VP. 1746”. Signatures of I. J. Brownlee and Peter Wilson on the title page.
Peter Wilson (1746–1825) was born in Ordiquhill, Banffshire, Scotland, and studied at the University of Aberdeen. After moving to New York City in 1763, he worked as a teacher and then as principal of the Hackensack Academy before becoming professor of Greek and Latin at Columbia College 1789–92 and 1797–1820. During the latter stint he was also professor of Grecian and Roman antiquities. Wilson’s service at Columbia was interrupted by a principalship at Erasmus Hall Academy in Flatbush, New York. Peter Wilson represented Bergen County in the New Jersey General Assembly, 1778–1781 and 1787. In 1783 he helped prepare a revision and codification of the laws of New Jersey. Dr. Wilson also wrote textbooks and edited classical works (DAB; Ward W. Briggs Jr., ed., Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists [1994], 715–6; NjHi: Wilson Papers; Milton Halsey Thomas, Columbia University Officers and Alumni 1754–1857 [1936], 92; Historical Catalogue of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1764–1894 [1895], 334; John P. Dullard, comp., Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey [1921], 175; Willis Boughton and Eugene W. Harter, Chronicles of Erasmus Hall [1906], 52–4; Boston Columbian Centinel, 6 Aug. 1825). (Source: National Archives.)
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