PREFACE

...of the reading, Hudson original: "Hudsonus"; referring to John Hudson (1662–1719), the English classical scholar and head of the Bodleian Library who prepared this edition. would make; when I speak of "Greek," I mean his notes on Josephus, begun and published, which illustrate his Greek style or history. For many things in his edition concern the Latin version of the ancient interpreter, which deserved no place here, because we have followed a different and new interpretation by the famous Hudson. Among those books which he published regarding the Jewish War, the name of Aldrich is frequently read in the notes of the First and part of the Second Book. This was Henry Aldrich, Rector of Christ Church One of the largest colleges of the University of Oxford; Aldrich was a significant figure in its history as an architect, musician, and scholar.; he was remarkably cultivated in all the liberal arts; skilled in music and a friend of the Muses, and a poet of no small merit. He showed the greatest kindness toward his students, especially the noblemen who lived under his guidance; in other matters, he was a rigid enforcer of Church discipline, a fierce enemy of the Presbyterian factions, and a most spirited champion of Royal authority. He lived a long time in the University with the highest favor and the praise of all virtues; he wrote very little, and of his own writings he published almost nothing, but through his deeds, he left a most pleasant memory of himself to his friends and to posterity.

Next, we have inserted the commentary of François Combefis on the book about the Maccabees Specifically referring to the work known as 4 Maccabees, which was historically, though incorrectly, attributed to Josephus. among the notes of the others. This short work, with his notes and a new version directed against Erasmus, had been published in the most recent supplement to the Library of the Fathers, and from there the Leipzig scholars had received it into their appendix of Josephus in the year 1691. Finally, we have assigned a well-deserved place to the very learned notes of our once most honored teacher, Jacob Gronovius, regarding that Great Gap original: "Lacunam"; referring to a significant missing portion in the Greek manuscripts of Antiquities of the Jews, which Gronovius was the first to fill using new manuscript evidence. which was first filled by him.

Moreover, the notes of Johannes Cocceius, Ezekiel Spanheim, and Adriaan Reland on the Complete Works of Josephus appear now for the first time. The copy belonging to Cocceius had manuscript collations sprinkled everywhere in the margins: namely, the Bigotian referring to the collection of Jean Bigot. readings from two codices of the highest quality for the first ten books of the Antiquities, and the Vossian referring to the collection of Isaac Vossius. readings for the remaining books, as well as for the books on the Jewish War. The Bigotian readings indeed came into the possession of many, for Bernard had them, as did Hudson, and I myself found them diligently written in the margin of a Basel edition of Josephus. I also obtained them through the kindness of the most reverend priest of the church at Haarlem, Abraham Allard, who moreover possesses another copy of Josephus in which all those things which Johannes Cocceius wrote with his own hand in my copy stood out, transcribed in a cleaner hand. Although I could not make great use of these books because of the originals and others from an earlier hand, I nevertheless wished this most honorable recommendation of my former companion—once so pleasant in the rudiments of letters and later in higher disciplines—to stand forth publicly. Cocceius had added many conjectures to his book, which we have faithfully published under his immortal name. The merit of Reland toward Josephus was also not small; for by inserting blank pages, he had scattered his notes and observations everywhere, which would have grown into a greater number and mass if the bitter fates of such a great man—alas!—had allowed. Yet they are such that I would dare to affirm they shed a great deal of light on this greatest of authors, and wonderfully commend the talent and learning of the writer. We owe these to the most praised benevolence of his heirs. The fame of that Ezekiel Spanheim is great among all the learned; he not only outshone his ancestors but seems to have possessed an unquenchable abundance of all-encompassing erudition. It was known to us that a volume marked by his hand existed in the library of the most powerful King of Prussia, but the path to obtaining it was difficult. At last, having overcome the difficulties, I obtained the copy itself, written everywhere by his hand, sent by the famous man Maturin Veyssière la Croze, Librarian to his Royal Majesty, and this through the singular kindness of Baron von Printz, who himself added a most polished Latin letter and adorned that gift with most honorable words. And would that that hero, worthy of immortality, were still among the living; so that all, looking upon those faces commended by so many virtues, might see the savior of Spanheim's Josephus—