RULAND, Martin, HOESCHEL, David

Scarce Geneva edition of this schoolboy Latin-Greek lexicon originally published in Augsburg in 1590. As the preface explains, this work was a combined effort. It was originally written, as a Latin-Greek dictionary with a section on synonyms, by Martin Ruland the Elder (1532-1602), a German alchemist and physician; due to illness and the contemporary publication of other similar works like Estienne’s monumental Greek thesaurus in 1572, Ruland set this work aside. It was the German librarian and scholar David Hoeschel (1556-1617) who decided to revise and publish it as ‘Dictionarii Latino Graeci, Sive Synonymorum’ in 1590, mentioning Ruland only in the preface. Ruland’s namesake son saw into print his father’s unpublished works after the latter’s death, including the dictionary, adding his father’s name to the title. Intended for students, the dictionary proceeds alphabetically in double column, providing for each Latin word one or more Greek translations, with indications of the author from whom they were borrowed. The t-p of this edition is one of the few in which the printer, Jacob Stoer specified the name of the city in which he was printed.