The Delphin Classics or Ad usum Delphini was a series of annotated editions of the Latin classics, intended to be comprehensive, which was originally created in the 17th century.
The first volumes were created in the 1670s for Louis, le Grand Dauphin, heir of Louis XIV (“Delphini” is the Latinization (genitive) of Dauphin ), and were written entirely in Latin. Thirty-nine scholars contributed to the series, which was edited by Pierre Huet with assistance from several co-editors, including Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Anne Dacier. [1] The main features included the main Latin texts; a paraphrase in the margins or below in simpler Latin prose (an ordo verborum); extended notes on specific words and lines, mainly about history, myth, geography, or natural sciences; and indices. One useful pedagogical feature of this series is that it keeps students reading and working in the target language (Latin). [2]
The original volumes each had an engraving of Arion and a dolphin, accompanied by the inscription in usum serenissimi Delphini (for the use of the most serene Dauphin). The collection includes 64 volumes published from 1670 to 1698. [3] [4] [5]
Beginning in 1819, a different series of Latin classics was published in England under the name Valpy's Delphin Classics by Abraham John Valpy. [6] That series was edited by George Dyer, who produced 143 volumes; it shares little or nothing in common with the earlier, French series, notwithstanding the name. The French Dauphin Classics continued to be published contemporaneously with Valpy's, serving in classrooms across Europe and the Americas; the first American edition was published in Philadelphia in 1804 [7] while one European edition was published in Bassan as late as 1844. [8]
The expression Ad usum Delphini was sometimes used on other texts which had been expurgated because they contained passages considered inappropriate for the youth, and has been used pejoratively to indicate any work expurgated for the sake of younger audiences, and not just this series of Latin texts and commentaries.
(Taken from Volpilhac-Auger p. 214. [9] )
Author | Editor | Date and place of publication, Number of volumes |
---|---|---|
Salluste | Daniel Crispin | Paris, 1674 |
Cornelius Nepos | Nicolas Courtin | Paris, 1675 |
Phèdre | Pierre Danet | Paris, 1675 |
Térence | Nicolas le Camus | Paris, 1675 |
Velleius Paterculus | Robert Riguez, S. J. | Paris, 1675 |
Panegyrici Veteres | Jacques de la Beaune, S. J. | Paris, 1676 |
Justin (historian) | Pierre Joseph Cantel, S. J. | Paris, 1676 |
Claudien | Guillaume Pyrrhon (ou Pyron) | Paris, 1677 |
Jules César | Jean Goduin, professeur à Paris | Paris, 1678 |
Quinte Curce | Michel le Tellier, S. J. | Paris, 1678 |
Manilius | Michel La Faye (ou Dufay); Pierre Daniel Huet, Remarques sur Manilius, et Julius Caesar Scaliger, Notes | Paris, 1679 |
Plaute | Jacques de l'Ouvre | Paris, 1679, 2 vol. |
Tite-Live | Jean Douiat | Paris, 1679,6 vol. |
Valère Maxime | Pierre Joseph Cantel, S. J. | Paris, 1679 |
Boèce | Pierre Cally, professeur à Caen | Paris, 1680 |
Dictys de Crète et Dares de Phrygie | Anne Dacier, fille de Tanneguy Lefebvre | Paris, 1680 |
Lucrèce | Michel La Faye (ou Dufav) | Paris, 1680 |
Martial | Vincent Colesson, professeur de droit | Paris, 1680 |
Aulu-Gelle | Jacques Proust, S. J. | Paris, 1681 |
Aurelius Victor | Anne Dacier, fille de Tanneguy Lefebvre | Paris, 1681 |
Sextus Pompeius Festus et Verrius Flaccus | André Dacier | Paris, 1681 |
Cicéron, Livres qui concernent l'art oratoire | Jacques Proust, S. J. | Paris, 1682,2 vol. |
Tacite | Julien Pichon | Paris, 1682,4 vol. |
Virgile | Charles de la Rue, S. J. | Paris, 1682 |
Eutrope | Anne Dacier, fille de Tanneguy Lefebvre | Paris, 1683 |
Cicéron, Discours | Charles de Mérouville, S. J. | Paris, 1684, 3 vol. |
Juvénal et Perse | Louis Desprez | Paris, 1684 |
Suétone | Augustin Babelon | Paris, 1684 |
Catulle, Tibulle et Properce | Philippe Dubois | Paris, 1685,2 vol. |
Cicéron, Épîtres ad familiares | Philibert Quartier | Paris, 1685 |
Pline l'ancien, Histoire naturelle | Jean Hardouin, S. J. | Paris, 1685,5 vol. |
Stace | Claude Berault | Paris, 1685, 2 vol. |
Prudence | Etienne Chamillard, S. J. | Paris, 1687 |
Apulée | Jules Fleury, chanoine de Chartres | Paris, 1688, 2 vol. |
Cicéron, Ouvrages philosophiques | François L'Honoré, S. J. | Paris, 1689 |
Ovide | Daniel Crispin | Lyon, 1689,4 vol. |
Horace | Louis Desprez | Paris, 1691,2 vol. |
Pline l'ancien, Histoire naturelle | Jean Hardouin, S. J. | Paris, 1723, 3 vol. in fol. (nouv. édition) |
Ausone | Jules Fleury ; Jean-Baptiste Souchay | Paris, 1730 |
The Ad usum Delphini collection was referred to by E.T.A. Hoffmann in Lebensansichten des Katers Murr (1819). [10]
„Sie sind, unterbrach ihn der Prinz, ein spaßhafter Mann.“ — Ganz und gar nicht, fuhr Kreisler fort, ich liebe zwar den Spaß, aber nur den schlechten, und der ist nun wieder nicht spaßhaft. Gegenwärtig wollt' ich gern nach Neapel gehen, und beim Molo einige gute Fischer- und Banditenlieder aufschreiben ad usum delphini. (English translation: "You are, the prince interrupted, a jolly man." - Not at all, Kreisler continued, I love fun, but only bad, and it's not fun again. At present I would like to go to Naples and write down some good fishermen's and bandit songs ad usum delphini at the Molo.)
The Ad usum Delphini collection was referred to by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in Devereux , Book IV (1829): [11]
let me turn to Milord Bolingbroke, and ask him whether England can produce a scholar equal to Peter Huet, who in twenty years wrote notes to sixty-two volumes of Classics, for the sake of a prince who never read a line in one of them?" "We have some scholars," answered Bolingbroke; "but we certainly have no Huet. It is strange enough, but learning seems to me like a circle: it grows weaker the more it spreads. We now see many people capable of reading commentaries, but very few indeed capable of writing them."
Honoré de Balzac III: Ève et David, later Les souffrances de l'inventeur, (1843): [12]
History is of two kinds--there is the official history taught in schools, a lying compilation ad usum delphini; and there is the secret history which deals with the real causes of events--a scandalous chronicle.
There is a reference to the Delphin Classics in Part I, Chapter 5 of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895), [13] where young Jude, trying to educate himself by reading while delivering bread from a horse and cart,
"plunge[s] into the simpler passages from Caesar, Virgil, or Horace [. . .] The only copies he had been able to lay hands on were old Delphin editions, because they were superseded, and therefore cheap. But, bad for idle school-boys, it did so happen that they were passably good for him." [14]
The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics. The first book that was dated and printed under his name appeared in 1495.
Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian, was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost entirely in hexameters or elegiac couplets, falls into three main categories: poems for Honorius, poems for Stilicho, and mythological epic.
Muretus is the Latinized name of Marc Antoine Muret, a French humanist who was among the revivers of a Ciceronian Latin style and is among the usual candidates for the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance.
Pierre Daniel Huet was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics, founder of the Académie de Physique in Caen (1662-1672) and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 to 1689 and afterwards of Avranches.
Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, was a French soldier and, from 1668 to 1680, the governor of the dauphin, the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France.
André Dacier was a French classical scholar and editor of texts. He began his career with an edition and commentary of Festus' De verborum significatione, and was the first to produce a "readable" text of the 20-book work. His wife was the influential classical scholar and translator, Anne Dacier.
Anne Le Fèvre Dacier, better known during her lifetime as Madame Dacier, was a French scholar, translator, commentator and editor of the classics, including the Iliad and the Odyssey. She sought to champion ancient literature and used her great capabilities in Latin and Greek for this purpose as well as for her own financial support, producing a series of editions and translations from which she earned her living. She was the dedicatee of Gilles Ménage's Historia mulierum philosopharum, whose characterisation of her and of Anna Maria van Schurman was used to provide leading examples in treatises arguing for female education across the following centuries.
The Organon is the standard collection of Aristotle's six works on logical analysis and dialectic. The name Organon was given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics.
The Harvard Classics, originally marketed as Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books, is a 50-volume series of classic works of world literature, important speeches, and historical documents compiled and edited by Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot. Eliot believed that a careful reading of the series and following the eleven reading plans included in Volume 50 would offer a reader, in the comfort of the home, the benefits of a liberal education, entertainment and counsel of history's greatest creative minds. The initial success of The Harvard Classics was due, in part, to the branding offered by Eliot and Harvard University. Buyers of these sets were apparently attracted to Eliot's claims. The General Index contains upwards of 76,000 subject references.
Louis, Dauphin of France, commonly known as Grand Dauphin, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. He became known as the Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the Petit Dauphin. He and his son died before his father and thus never became king. Instead, his grandson became King Louis XV at the death of Louis XIV, and his second son inherited the Spanish throne as Philip V through his grandmother.
The Conimbricenses were an important collection of Jesuit commentaries on Aristotle compiled at University of Coimbra in Coimbra, Portugal.
The Caprotinia, or feasts of Juno Caprotina, were ancient Roman festivals which were celebrated on July 7, in favor of the female slaves. During this solemnity, they ran about, beating themselves with their fists and with rods. None but women assisted in the sacrifices offered at this feast.
Abraham John Valpy was an English printer and publisher.
Epsilon Delphini, officially named Aldulfin, is a solitary, blue-white hued star in the northern constellation of Delphinus. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.03. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 9.87 mas as seen from the Earth, the system is located about 330 light-years from the Sun. At Epsilon Delphini's distance, the visual magnitude is diminished by an extinction factor of 0.11 due to interstellar dust. The star is moving closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −19 km/s.
Auguste-François Maunoury was a Catholic Hellenist and exegete.
Antoine Halley was a French professor and poet.
Critici sacri was a compilation of Latin biblical commentaries published in London from 1660, edited by John Pearson. The publisher was Cornelius Bee. The work appeared in nine volumes, and collected numerous authors, both Protestant and Catholic, of early modern critical work on the Bible. It was intended to complement Brian Walton's Polyglot Bible, and set off a series of subsequent related publications.
Luís António Verney was a Portuguese philosopher, theologian, and pedagogue. An estrangeirado, Verney is sometimes called the most important figure of the Portuguese Enlightenment.
Exsiccata is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set[s] of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae refer to numbered collections of dried herbarium specimens respectively preserved biological samples published in several duplicate sets with a common theme/ title like Lichenes Helvetici. Exsiccatae are regarded as scientific contributions of the editor(s) with characteristics from the library world and features from the herbarium world. Exsiccatae works represent a special method of scholarly communication. The text in the printed matters/published booklets is basically a list of labels (schedae) with informations on each single numbered exsiccatal unit. Extensions of the concept occur.