This edition is described here as being probably the one, lacking a title-page, attributed to the Jefferson Library in the 1839 (and later) Library of Congress catalogues. The earlier Heinsius editions were in duodecimo. The Elzevir edition, Amsterdam, 1677, 24s is entered in both the dated and undated manuscript Catalogues, but was not sold to Congress. The latter catalogue has also an entry for the 1650 edition, 24s, by the same press. It cannot be considered certain that this was actually the volume from Jefferson’s library. Jefferson was extremely accurate and meticulous in his entries and it seems unlikely that he would use the English form Claudian to indicate a Latin author. The catalogue of 1839 is the first one to use the Latin name, and the first one to note the loss of the title-page.

Claudius Claudianus, Latin poet, was born probably in Alexandria, but lived in Rome and in Milan 395-404. He became poet-laureate of Stilicho and the Emperor Honorius.

For a note on Heinsius, see no. 4409.

This book was ordered by Jefferson, in a letter dated from Amsterdam, March 23, 1788, to Van Damme, bookseller in that city, from his catalogue (Vol. I, page 18). It is entered by him in his undated manuscript catalogue.

Joshua Barnes, 1654-1712, first published his translation into Latin of Anacreon in 1705; his Latin translation and the original Greek text are printed in parallel columns at the beginning of this work. The poets whose translations are in this volume are:

Bartolomeo Corsini, 1606-1673, first printed in 1672.

Abbé François Séraphim Regnier des Marais, 1632-1713, originally printed with the Greek text in 1693.

Alessandro Marchetti, 1632-1714, first printed in Lucca in 1707.

Anton Maria Salvini, 1653-1729, first published in Florence, 1695.

There are also versions by varj illustri poeti anonimi, and at the end Composizioni Anacreontiche di varj, namely Claudeo Tolomei, Benedetto Guidi, Flaminii Raii Pratensis and Guiliano Goselini.