SOPHOCLE Antigone tragoedia à Gentiano Herveto Aurelio traducta è Greco in Latinum.

Copley Christie, 28 ; Longeon, 146 ; Sibylle von Gültlingen, VIII, p. 217, n° 39.

First editin of this translation. 

This elegant Latin version of Sophocles’ Antigone was written by the humanist Gentian Hervet (1499-1584), who also wrote a series of 37 epigrams. 

Hervet, one of the most ardent anti-Protestant polemicists of his time, was (paradoxically) a pupil of Calvin, tutor to Claude de l’Aubépine, then to Renaud Polus – son of the Countess of Salisbury -, professor at the Collège de Guyenne, assistant to Jean de Morvillier, Bishop of Orléans, at the colloquium in Poissy, and finally canon of Rheims Cathedral. A rare printing by Étienne Dolet, produced shortly before his first arrest. 

One of the epigrams is dedicated to the great humanist typographer, who was to be executed in Paris on 3 August 1546: “Il est bon de noter cette marque d’estime venant d’un homme aussi savant et aussi orthodoxe que Gentian Hervet” (Copley Christie).

Broad margined, uncut copy ; title slightly stained, some overall toning.