760G Aristaenetus. fl. 5th or 6th Century A.D.

 

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Aristainetou Epistola erotikai. Tina ton palaion Heroon epitaphia … E bibliotheca Ioan. Sambuci Antverpiae :

Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1566                                                              $SOLD

Quarto A- M 4 {gk} lacking M4 Blank?
First Edition (Editio princeps).

This copy is bound in early full vellum one large worm trail in the upper margin not affecting the text a nice copy of a scarce book. *)Aristai/netos), the reputed author of two books of Love-Letters.   DSC_0126 (1)

Of the author nothing is known.  Most like because it is a pseudonym for the more common Anonymous..Yet it has been conjectured, that he is the same as Aristaenetus of Nicaea, to whom several of Libanius’ Epistles are addressed, and who lost his life in the earthquake in Nicomedia, A. D. 358. (Comp. Ammian. Marcell. 17.7.) That this supposition, however, is erroneous, is proved by the mention of the celebrated pantomimus Caramallus in one of the epistles, who is mentioned in the fifth century by Sidonius Apolloniaris (23.267) as his contemporary. Sidonius died A. D. 484.
“These Letters are taken almost entirely from Plato, Lucian, Philostratus, and PluDSC_0128tarch; and so owe to their reputed author Aristaenetus nothing but the connexion. They are short unconnected stories of love adventures ; and if the language in occasional sentences, or even paragraphs, is terse and elegant, yet on the whole they are only too insipid to be disgusting.”
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology  William Smith, Ed.

 

Adams; A 1692.; Hoffmann,; I, 243.; IA,; 107.607;Voet, L. Plantin Press (1555-1589) 5

 

There is a very good and informative English  edition Introduced, translated and annotated by Peter Bing and Regina Höschele. which I found very useful.
see it here—º
http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061632P-front.pdf