BENTZIUS, Johannes

An elaborately bound copy of the second, substantially enlarged edition of this scarce Latin-German lexicon. The lovely contemporary binding of German influence, as shown by the traces of green, black and red paint on the vellum, suggests this was a present. Johann Bentz (fl. late C16-early C17) from Brussels was professor at Strasbourg, and the author of Latin textbooks on rhetoric and grammar. This is the second, much enlarged edition ( alterum ), published by the same printer in the same year as the first ( primum ). Like the first, it is divided into subjects (or loci ), e.g., God, the soul, justice, temperance, history, the state, geometry, medicine, astronomy, the graphic crafts and the evil arts. Under De graphicis artificiis are typographia , typographus , excudere , operae typographicae , typus , loculi or capsulae (the printers type drawers), praelum , sphaera , atramentum typographicum (blank ink), minium (red ink), fusor typorum (the type founder), bibliopegus (bookbinder), and compingere (to bind). In most sections, Latin words are listed alphabetically, with a German translation. This second edition was reset in double column, and substantially revised with additional Latin and German synonyms, and long lists of related Latin phrases (either adjectives or verbs), so that the young owner could learn how to write in Latin on specific subjects (traditional and contemporary) using an idiomatic language. A detailed subject and a diagrammatic index were added as preliminaries, and the work concluded with an 83-page dictionary of all the German words mentioned in the work. A scarce work of linguistic and typographical interest.