[CAMERARIUS, Joachim, the elder]. Oratio habita Lipsiae ad funus illustrissimi principis Mauricii, ducis Saxonum electoris..., Leipzig, in officina Valentini Papae, 1553
4to. 16ff. Large woodcut initial, lightly browned, in modern boards.
THE RARE FIRST EDITION of the great German polymath and humanist's funeral oration for his employer, the elector of Saxony who had summoned him in 1541 to reorganise the University of Leipzig where he remained rector almost until his death in 1574. A great friend of Melancthon's he was the first to write the latter's biography which appeared in 1566 and he delivered funeral orations for the Duke of Wurttemberg (he also reorganised the University of Tübingen) and the Prince of Anhalt. He is still known today for his work on rhetoric, his Commentarii linguae Graecae et Latinae, Basel, 1551, and his posthumous Epistolae familiares. His son, Joachim the younger, was the celebrated doctor and botanist. The second edition of the above oration appeared two years later and was reprinted in Schardius' Historicum opus, Basel, 1574.
VD 16-C494; not in BMC or Adams; NUC locates only the copy at Harvard.
£400
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