Behemoth latinus: Adam Ebert, Tacitism, and Hobbes

Filozofski Vestnik

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 2003, Pages

  Malcolm, Noel ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Adam Ebert; Behemoth; Tacitism; Thomas Hobbes

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248059216     PISSN: 03534510     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. Staatsbibliothek, Berlin [hereafter: 'SBB'] MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 1r (title), 2v-6r (dedication), 279v (final note). I am very grateful to the staff of the Manuscripts Department of the Staatsbibliothek for their help during my visits there.
2. On fo. Ir there is an early stamp in red ink: 'Ex Biblioth. Regia Berolinensi' ('from the Royal Library, Berlin').
3. See, for example, R. von Liliencron et al., eds., Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 56 vols. (Leipzig, 1875-1912), v, p. 585.
4. The pagination (286 pp., with some major anomalies, including the omission of 169-214) matches that of items 87 (the self-styled 'Second Edition' of 1679) and 87a (a different issue of 87, also dated 1679) in H. Macdonald and M. Hargreaves, Thomas Hobbes: A Bibliography (London, 1952), pp. 65-66. Item 88 (also duodecimo, and also dated 1679) has a different pagination, extending to 214, not 286. Item 89 (dated 1680), which has the same pagination as item 87 and appears to be another issue of it, can be excluded: it lacks three of the quotations from Horace given on the title pages of 87 and 87a, which are reproduced by Ebert.
5. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fo. 79v ('Hic iterum confusio Literarum colloquentium, sed tolerata metu latentis arcani'). The passage is on p. 56 of T. Hobbes, Behemoth, Or, The Long Parliament, ed. F. Tönnies (London, 1889) [hereafter: 'Tönnies edn.'], beginning 'Why then were they not in all points for the King's power...', where it is correctly assigned to 'B'; in the 1679 edition used by Ebert (p. 76), the preceding speech by 'A' has been merged with the one before it, by 'B', so that 'B' has two speeches in succession. The other two passages are SBB MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 20v (Tönnies edn., p. 8, beginning 'But for those that die excommunicate in the Church of England...', correctly assigned there to 'B'; in the 1679 edition (pp. 10-11) 'A's' reply to 'B's' question is merged with the question, so that 'B' has two speeches in succession), and 162v (Tönnies edn., p. 126, beginning 'That is to say, by making poor people...', correctly assigned there to 'A'; in the 1679 edition, p. 1302 (sig. I5v) it is assigned to 'B').
6. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 280-85.
7. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 140r ('Cur Cromvellus Regis titulo abstinuerit'), 156v ('Cromvelli primordia'), 167r ('Cromvellus hic victor'), 179r ('Primum Cromvelli artificium'; 'Cromwellus Parliamentum in sacculo tenet'), 199v ('Quomodo Cromvellus Regis caedem machinatur'), 214v ('Exemplum Calliditatis Cromvellianae') (Tönnies edn., pp. 109, 122, 129, 138, 151, 160-61).
8. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fo. 170r ('eventu quippe unius proelii sinistri cuncta perdentis tandemq[ue] et vitam') (Tönnies edn., pp. 131-32).
9. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 52v ('per modum pacti'), 96r ('sed pretio eadem redemit', which fails to convey the sense of buying off), 104v ('Statum Defensionis', which fails to convey the sense of 'posture'), 127v ('per mod[um] casus'), 236r ('vicarius Praetor') (Tönnies edn., pp. 32, 72, 79, 99, 175).
10. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 11r (where the 1679 edition has 'Train'd-bands'), 86r, 93v (Tönnies edn., pp. 2 (which has 'trained soldiers'), 63, 70).
11. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fo. 21v (Tönnies edn., p. 9). Some omissions are ascribable not to the copyist but to the 1679 edition, e.g. fo. 112r: 'by the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of Judge Bartlet, and the impeachment of other bishops and judges' (Tönnies edn., p. 85) is given as 'Archi-Episcopo autem Cantuariensi et judicibus in carcerem consectis', which correctly translates the truncated version in the 1679 edition (p. 1161 (sig. F11v)). Much more puzzling is the translation of 'secular and ... regular priests' (Tönnies edn., p. 14) as 'sacerdotes eorumq[ue] amicos' (fos. 27v-28r), which has no warrant in the 1679 edition.
12. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fo. 24r (Tönnies edn., p. 11).
13. One of the worst examples of cumbersomeness is his version of the opening phrase, 'If in time, as in place, there were degrees of high and low...' as 'Siquidem tempora alia majoria alia minora aestimari merentur, quemadmodum spatiis locorum discrimen ejusmodi convenue videmus...' (fo. 10r); the quality of the translation does improve thereafter.
14. Tönnies edn., p. 72; SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fo. 96r ('Hobbes hic sensui et veritati repugnat fabulis Ethnicis quippe aliud docentibus').
15. See the listing in V. Rose, Verzeichniss der lateinhchen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1901-1919), ii, part 1, pp. 1406-10 (SBB, MSS Lat. 2o 101-5, 117, 120-30, 132, 177, and MS Theol. 2o 199). The evidence tends to suggest that all the volumes presented by Ebert have survived: in the dedicatory epistle to the penultimate volume (MS Lat. 2o 104, dated 1723), Ebert wrote that it would bring the total to nineteen (fo. 3v: 'ijs[que] augebunt novendecim Volumina manuscripta'), and this was followed by one volume presented in May 1725 (MS Lat. 2o 105). However, in the preface to his Historia captivitatis (see below, n. 27), he mentions one other manuscript prepared by him, a translation into French of the letters of Charles I to Henrietta Maria during the Civil War (probably taken from The King's Cabinet opened; Or, Certain Packets of Secret Letters & Papers, written by the King's own Hand, and taken in his Cabinet at Naseby-Field (London, 1645)); this does not appear to have survived.
16. SBB, MSS Lat. 2o 132 (1695), 120-22, 123 (1701). The work by Sandoval was his Historia de la vida y hechos del emperador Carlos V (Pamplona, 1634).
17. SBB, MSS Lat. 2o 177, 128, 130, 129. Geropoldi's work (Bilancia historico-politica dell'impero ottomano, overo arcani reconditi del maomettismo (Venice, 1686)) is rare, and apparently not held by any British library; there is a copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (pressmark J-3407).
18. SBB, MSS Lat. 2o 124-7; Theol. 2o 199 (containing Grecián's El criticón; El discreto; El politico Fernando; El héroe, and El oráculo; Ebert had probably taken these from the two-volume collected Obras of Grecián published at Antwerp in 1669). The work by Cabrera de Cordova was his Felipe segundo, rey de España (Madrid, 1619).
19. SBB, MSS Lat. 2o 101-3, 104, 105. On the significance of d'Herbelot's work see H. Laurens, Aux Sources de l'orientalisme: la Bibliothèque orientale de Barthélemi d'Herbelot (Paris, 1978). Grecián's El comulgatorio de varias meditaciones de la sagrada comunion was included in the two-volume Obras of 1669.
20. The work known as Kalilah ve Dimnah has a complex textual history (see the Introduction to I. G. N. Keith-Falconer, Kalilah and Dimnah, or, The Fables of Bidpai (Cambridge, 1885));
21. the book translated by Ebert was the Spanish translation (by a Ragusan) of the first eight chapters of a Turkish version (the Humayunnamah): Espejo politico, y moral, para principes, ministres, y todo genero de personas, tr. 'Vicente Bratuti' [Vicko Bratutti], 2 vols. (Madrid, 1654-58).
22. On this translation see Keith-Falconer, op. cit., p. lxx
23. and H. F. von Diez, Über Inhalt und Vortrag, Entstehung und Schicksale des königlichen Buchs, eines Werks von der Regierungskunst (Berlin, 1811), p. 151.
24. (Bratutti worked first as a dragoman for his native Ragusa in Istanbul, then for the Habsburgs in Austria and Spain, and died in 1678; I am grateful to Dr. Robin Harris and Dr Nenad Vekarić for their help in identifying him.) The work by de Mailly was first published in Paris in 1685; its second edition was entitled Amours des empereurs romains Iules César et Auguste (Amsterdam, 1701).
25. [A. Ebert,] Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, von Franco Porto der Khur-Brandenburg durch Teutschland, Holland und Braband, England, Frankreich ... ferner nach Turin, gantz Italien, Rom, Neapolis ... mitgehend besondere Discourse von Religion, privat- und publique Conduite, wie auch galante und remarqvable Consersation, in Europa (Frankfurt, 1724), part 1, p. 106; part 2, p. 347.
26. This folio MS, which has not survived, is mentioned in G. G. Küster, Des alten und neuen Berlin dritte Abtheilung (Berlin, 1756), p. 551, where the title is given as 'Prodromus bibliothecae Parnassi complexus examen, vitasque historicorum, qui lingua latina, Germanica, Belgica, Anglica, Gallica, Italica, Hispanica & Portugallica duobus adhinc seculis gesta Regum Europae quam optime illustrarent' ('A forerunner of the library of Parnassus, containing an examination, and the lives, of those historians who, writing in Latin, German, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, might best illuminate the actions of European kings in the last two centuries').
27. The letter to von Prinzen (5 Nov. 1723) is tipped in at the start of SBB MS Lat. 2o 104, and has been numbered as fo. 1 (fo 1r: 'Apret [sic] l'avoir communiqué aussi a Mon Le Baron Cocceji Le President, je vous supplie, Monseigneur, de le livrer a la Bibliotheque Royale').
28. For example, SBB MSS Lat. 2o 101, fos. 9v-11; 128, fo. 4; 130, fo. 8r.
29. Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, p. 106 ('weil den Authoren die Continuation seiner Reise nach Frankreich und anderen Landschafften darinnen jetzo verhinderte dermahleins zum Druck zu befördern').
30. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 130, fo. 7r ('Ceux cy sont en partie les fleurs dont respire le camps qui ose inviter Votre Majesté a la Promenade, Toute sa Cour, et si Vous voulez, toute la Republique des Lettres').
31. A. Ebert, tr., Historia captivitatis Francisci I. Galliarum regis, nec non vitae Caroli V. Imper. in monasterio, additâ relatio vitae mortisque Caroli Infantis Philippi II. Regis Hispaniarum filii: authoribus Prudentio de Sandoval ... et Ludovico de Cabrera de Cordua ('Milan' [Frankfurt an der Oder?], 1715). The brief specimen of his translation of Herbert consists of a speech by Cardinal Wolsey (pp. 367-72 [mispaginated '370']).
32. von Diez, Über Inhalt und Vortrag des königlichen Buchs, p. 152 ('Ebert hatte auch den Druck seiner Übersetzung durch die leipziger Zeitungen von 1725 angekündigt'). In 1731 an edition appeared at Frankfurt an der Oder of another work which Ebert had translated, Grecián's Oráculo, under the title Aulicus, sive de prudentia civili et maxime aulica liber singularis. However, this translation is quite different from Ebert's, being taken from the French version by Amelot de la Houssaie (see below, n. 95), and the translator is identified on the title page as 'Franc[iscus] Glarianus Meldenus, Constantiensis'.
33. G. Stolle, Anmerckungen über D. Heumanns Conspectum reipublicae literariae, allen Liebhabern der Historie der Gelahrheit zu Liebe an den Tag gegeben (Jena, 1738), p. 610 ('Hierauf erzehlte er, dass er dieses Spaniers Lebensbeschreibung Kayser Carls des V. aus dem Spanischen vertiret, doch habe der König in Preussen Bedencken getragen, es drucken zu lassen, daher das Mst. in die Bibliothec zu Berlin gekommen').
34. SBB, MS Lat. 2o 129, fos. 5-6r ('Labores vero suos aptavit Hobbesius non modo ad demonstrandam injustitiae rebellantis immanitatem, sed et ut ... vulgarentur illae artes, quibus Politicus sine Exemplo, Cromvellus ille, regio rudere fastigium omni admirabile mundo evexit. Curvus igitur genu Solio Tuo hosce industriae meae foetus offero Rex Sacratissime utilissimos typis committi generalibus, ut incolumitas vindicetur Principum, quam vel inscitia regnandi vel livor Regiae Magnitudinis obtentu Juris Populi solet attentare. Quod si vero iisdem annuere denuo inconsultum, supplico, ut Regiâ versionem hanc recondas Bibliothecâ').
35. See, for example, the comments to this effect by Ebert's teacher Johann Christoph Beckmann: Conspectus doctrinae politicae brevibus thesibus earumq[ue] demonstrationibus propositus (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1691), pp. 5, 12-13.
36. Report by Girolamo Lando and Vincenzo Gussoni, cited in H. Hendrix, Traiano Boccalini fra erudizione e polemica: ricerche sulla fortuna e bibliografia critica (Florence, 1995), p. 144 ('non saprei quanto fosse utile che ella si spargiesse per le mani de' popoli, si perche in essa leggono quegli arcani de principi che molto meglio stanno custoditi nelle secrette che nelle botteghe veduti et venduti'). The work was eventually published (incompletely and inadequately) in 1677 and 1678. Ebert, who was an enthusiast for both Tacitus and Boccalini, would no doubt have taken a special interest in the story of its suppression.
37. See, for example, H. Love, Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1993);
38. W. Speed Hill, ed., New Ways of Looking at Old Texts (Binghamton, NY, 1993);
39. A. F. Marotti, Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric (Ithaca, NY, 1995).
40. Zentralbibliothek, Zurich, MS C 114a, fo. IIIv.
41. Both of these motives were at work in John Aubrey's decision to consign his MSS to a 'public repository': see K. Bennett, 'John Aubrey's Collections and the Early Modern Museum', The Bodleian Library Record, 17 (2001), pp. 213-45, esp. pp. 216-18.
42. E. Paunel, Die Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin: ihre Geschichte und Organisation während der ersten zwei Jahrhunderte seit ihrer Eröffnung, 1661-1871 (Berlin, 1965), pp. 17-18, 23.
43. See also K. Tautz, Die Bibliothekare der churfürstlichen Bibliothek zu Cölln an der Spree: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Preussischen Staatsbibliothek im siebzehnten Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1925), pp. 23-37.
44. F. Wilken, Geschichte der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin, 1828), p. 87.
45. Küster, Des alten und neuen Berlin, p. 23;
46. J. Toland, An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover, sent to a Minister of State in Holland (London, 1705), p. 13 (letter dated 18 Aug. 1702).
47. Paunel, Die Staatsbibliothek, p. 34.
48. J. Burckhard, Historia bibliothecae Augustae quae Wolffenbutteli est, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1744-46), ii, p. 336 (Leibniz to Hertelius, 23 July 1711: 'M. Fritsch m'ayant fait presser pour l'Ouurage de Hobbes sur la Liberiê).
49. Stolle, Anmerckungen, p. 975
50. ('die Schrifften, so er in seiner Muttersprache hinterlassen, stehen nicht mit darunter. Thomas Fritsch wollte dieselben lateinisch übersetzen lassen, und diese Opera damit gantz heraus geben, allein, wie er sie nicht alle erhalten können [sic], so ist dieses Vorhaben Krebsgängig worden'). Puzzlingly, Stolle mis-dates the Opera philosophica to 1684. In a previous discussion of Fritsch's project I commented that he had 'perhaps' planned to commission translations into German, French or Latin (Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford, 2002), p. 462); this evidence from Stolle, which was not known to me then, shows that Latin was the intended language.
51. Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Dresden, MS 10753 (Oberkonsistorium, Büchersachen, vol. ii (1711-13)), fo. 18, copy of letter from Elector to 'Büchercommissarien', 11 Oct. 1711 ('worzu itzo noch etliche Manuscripta, so vorhero nicht in druck gewesen, kommen wären').
52. In the preface to his account of his travels in 1678, 1679 and 1680, however, Ebert refers to himself as aged 21, 22 and 23, which would imply that he was born in 1657; and in the text he refers to the start of his 22nd year (i.e., his 21st birthday) in the autumn of 1678 (Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, sig. π4ν; part 1, p. 116). In view of his early registration at the university, however, it may be suspected that he was understating his age in these later writings.
53. Seidel, Bilder-Sammlung, p. 45 (Gottlieb);
54. J. C. Beckmann ['Becmanus'], Notitia Universitatis Francofurtanae, una cum iconibus personarum aliquot illustrium (n.p., n.d. [Frankfurt an der Oder, c.1706]), pp. 50-51, 71, 116-20 (other ancestors).
55. E. Friedländer, ed., Ältere Universitätsmatrikeln der Universität Frankfurt an der Oder, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1888-91), ii, p. 108.
56. See C. R. Hausen, Geschichte der Universität und Stadt Frankfurt an der Oder (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1800), pp. 17-20.
57. Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, part 1, pp. 18-19. The pamphlet appeared first in 1674 as Der gewonnene Aussgang und plötzliche Fall des ... Fürst Lobkowitzens ... geschrieben aus dem Parnas von Trajano Boccalini;
58. it was reissued in both German and Latin in 1675 (see P. Stötzner, 'Der Satiriker Trajano Boccalini und sein Einfiuss auf die deutsche Litteratur', Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen, 103 (1899), pp. 107-47; here pp. 144-45).
59. Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, part 1, pp. 29-30.
60. J. Aubrey, 'Brief Lives', chiefly of Contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey, between the years 1669 & 1696, ed. A. Clark, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1898), i, p. 346 ('1675, mense ... [sic], he left London cum animo nunquam revertendi ['with the intention of never returning'], and spent the remaynder of his dayes in Derbyshire').
61. Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, part 1, pp. 78-79 ('Er hat auch dem Welt-berühmten Th. Hobbes reverenciret / als er sehr alt zu Londen bey einem Mechanico Mathematischer Instrumenten, Robert Joyle, nicht weit von Fleetbridge logirt. Er trug ihm sein Eslim, so in gantz Teutschland / vor; allein er war so kranck und unvermögend / dass er sich wenig einlassen konte; ein langer Mann / gelb oder basané. Er hatte zu Cromvels Zeiten viel Dessastres ausszustehen gehabt / absonderlich auff der Universität zu Ochsfort mit Doctor Vallis, dergestalt / dass er auch mit dem Carcer daselbst scandalisirt. Nachdem begab er sich in Franckreich zum König Carolo II., informirte ihn in Mathematicis mit solchem Vergnügen / dass der König bey seiner Restitution ihn nicht allein grüssete / als er seinen ersten Einzug in Londen that und ihn im Fenster erblickete / sondern auch nachmahls sein Bildnüss in allen seinen Pallästen auffrichten liess').
62. For what little is known of JoIe, see J. Brown, 'Guild Organisation and the Instrument-Making Trade, 1550-1830: The Grocers' and Clockmakers' Companies', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), pp. 1-34 (here p. 31);
63. G. Clifton, Dictionary of British Scientific Instrument Makers, 1550-1851 (London, 1995), p. 152.
64. Quentin Skinner has recently demonstrated that Chatsworth Hobbes MS D 5, which contains a fragment of a series of dictated responses by Hobbes to questions by the fourth Earl of Devonshire, was a product of the Exclusion Crisis of 1679 (see his edition of this text in the Clarendon Edition of the Works of Hobbes, forthcoming). So whatever Hobbes's medical problems may have been in these final years, it is clear that they did not include senility. Hobbes's spoken Latin was already unusably rusty by 1652: see L. Huygens, The English Journal, 1651-1652, ed. and tr. A. G. H. Bachrach and R. G. Collmer (Leiden, 1982), pp. 75, 218.
65. Ebert's memory was faulty, and his version of the inscription ungrammatical: the medal, dated 3 Sept. 1658 (the date of Cromwell's death) in fact bears a picture of a young olive tree glowing close to the dead stump of an old one, with the motto 'NON. DEFITIENT. OLIVA' ('They [sc. the people] shall not lack an olive-tree') - referring to Richard Cromwell. The medal was genuinely issued in 1658, by the well-known artist Thomas Simon, but two imitations of it were made later in Holland (see H. W. Henfrey, Numismata cromwelliana (London, 1877), pp. 167-72;
66. E. Hawkins, Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the Death of George II, 2 vols. (London, 1885), i, pp. 433-35).
67. Ebert also noted (Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, part 1, p. 202) that the 'cousin' of Cromwell looked just like the portrait on the medal. He refers to the book as 'the Mistakes of Cromvel'; in a subsequent comment (part 2, p. 348) he appears to identify this with the German book Politicus sine exemplo, which was a translation of the anonymously published work by Henry Fletcher, The Perfect Politician (see below, n. 99).
68. A. Ebert, Quinquagenta relationes ex Parnasso de variis Europae eventibus (Hamburg, 1683), pp. 1-7, 242-49, 250-58.
69. Stötzner, 'Der Satiriker Trajano Boccalini', p. 146 ('Seinem Vorbilde aber steht Ebert weit nach, es fehlt ihm völlig die Frische und Lebhaftigkeit, die an Boccalini so wohl gefällt').
70. Ebert, Quinquagenta relationes, sig. 7v. The other works included a treatise on the relatedness of the Romance languages, and one on shorthand.
71. J. C. Beckmann ['Becmanus'], Catalogus bibliothecae publicae Universitat. Francofurtanae (Frankfurt an der Oder), p. 92, gives its date of publication as 1698 (in 'Voll. Dispp. Francoff.'). No copy of this edition is known to me. A 2nd edition ('denuo ed.') was published in 1699: Tractatus de eo, quod fit ipso iure (Frankfurt an der Oder); there is a copy in the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Münster, pressmark Ia 4097+ a-5, 12. Another edition ('Revisus & denuo editus' ('revised and re-published')) was issued in Hanover and Leipzig in 1699 (203 pp.); there are multiple copies of this in the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Halle.
72. I have used the later printing in S. Stryk, ed., Dissertationum juridicarum francofortensium volumen novissimum sive Vtum, ex jure publico, privato, feudali et statutario materias exhibens (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1744), pp. 374-460: see pp. 374 (Tacitus), 402-3 (Taylor).
73. The dissertations are: Dissertatio de immunitate legatorum, quam ... praeside Dn. Adamo Eberto, J.U.D & P.P. in auditorio Jctorum ad diem XXVI. Augusti anno MDCLXXXVI. ... sistit aut. & resp. AndreasJohann Liscovius Cöslino-Pom. (n.p, n.d. [Frankfurt an der Oder, 1686]);
74. Dissertatio academica, de justitia actionum Philippi II. Hispaniae & Indiarum regis, quam Adamo Eberto, D. & professore juris extraordinario 1687. ad diem 28. Maj. Publicae eruditorum censura exhibiturus Gustavus Andreas Bornemann, Wernigerodensis (Frankfurt an der Oder, n.d. [1687]).
75. The titles indicate that Ebert's appointment as professor took place between those two dates; a four-page prospectus of his inaugural lecture (dated 31 October) was printed as Ab augusto sereniss. & potentissimo domino Friderico Wilhelmo, Electore Brandenburgico ... professionem iuris extraordinariam clementissime demandatam iussa solennitale auspicandi ad explicationem tituli imperatoris Iustiniani die 31. octobris in auditorio publico proponendam ... invitat Adam Ebertus D. (Frankfurt an der Oder, n.d. [1686]). (There is a copy in the Sächsisches Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Dresden, pressmark Coll. Diss. B. 129, misc. 19.) The title 'professor extraordinarius' signified merely that he was outside the offical complement of law professors, which was fixed by the statutes at no more than five (G. Kaufman and G. Bauch, eds., Acten und Urkunden der Universität Frankfurt a. O., Heft 3, 'Die Facultätsstatuten und Ergänzungen zu den allgemeinen Statuten der Universität Frankfurt a. O.', ed. P. Reh (Breslau, 1900), p. 50). Under these statutes, the curriculum concentrated solidly on the Pandects, Institutes, and other texts of Roman law (pp. 52-53).
76. Ebert, tr., Historia captivitatis Fransisci I., sig. 2v ('ad Praxin transgredi Regiam placuit, JURIS NATURAE nimirum, GENTIUMQUE & CIVILIS').
77. The former comment ('Spinosa ac inutili jurisprudentia') is from a note added by Ebert to the end of his 1685 dissertation: Stryk, ed., Dissertationum juridicarum, p. 460.
78. The latter is contained in a brief autobiographical text by Ebert, printed in Seidel, Bilder-Sammlung, p. 45.
79. Ebert, praes, Dissertatio de immunitate legatorum, sigs. 2A1-2.
80. The dissertation was attributed to Ebert by Stolle: Anmerckungen, p. 609. According to Küster, Ebert's manuscript works did include a life of Alexander the Great (as well as a commentary on the Annals of Tacitus, and several legal treatises): Seidel, Bilder-Sammlung, p. 46. But those manuscripts have not survived.
81. The 2nd edition of the Quinquagenta relationes was entitled Anecdota sive historia arcana Europae ('Cosmopolis' [Amsterdam?], 1715). Copies of the 1st edition of Auli Apronii Reise-Beschreibung (Frankfurt an der Oder) are rare; there is one in the Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitä tsbibliothek, Göttingen, pressmark 8 ITIN, 164 EXE:02. I have used the more common 2nd (and enlarged) edition, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung.
82. See Tacitus, Annals, 1.29 and 3.64.
83. Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, sig. π4ν ('wo sind dann Anno 1681. die Relationes ex Parnasso ... hergekommen?'). Ebert had mis-remembered the date of publication, perhaps substituting inadvertently the date of composition.
84. A. F. Glafey, ed., Bibliotheca rinckiana, seu suppellex librorum quos ... collegit ... Eucharius Gottlieb Rinck (Leipzig, n.d. [1747]), pp. 240 ('enormi ambitione vexabatur'), 847-48 (plagiarism). The statement made by Ebert about his debt to the musician does not begin to support such a charge.
85. Ebert, Anecdota, BL pressmark 9073 b. 13, note on blank leaf before title page.
86. Stolle, Anmerckungen, p. 609 ('die hochtrabenden gezwungnen Manieren der Spanier'; 'einer tiefsinnigen Schreibart beflissen');
87. Strimesius, quoted in Küster, Den alten und neuen Berlin, p. 550 ('eine in den Europäischen und gelehrten Sprachen wunder-erfahrne Feder'). Strimesius had been Rector of the University of Frankfurt an der Oder in 1688, 1694 and 1699.
88. Ebert, Quinquagenta relationes, pp. 180-81 ('simplex est, nec unquam de eadem motae fuissent controversiae nisi ubi illis indiguerit Dominatio').
89. Ebert, Auli Apronii vermehrte Reise-Beschreibung, part 1, pp. 208, 268; part 2, pp. 122, 144, 232, 239.
90. Ebert, Quinquagenta relationes, pp. 135-46 ('arcana': p. 143), 182, 197, 269-78 (reply to criticism).
91. On this identification see especially P. S. Donaldson, Machiavelli and Mystery of State (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 110-40.
92. On Tacitism see J. von Stackelberg, Tacitus in der Romania: Studien zur literarischen Rezeption des Tacitus in Italien und Frankreich (Tübingen, 1960);
93. E.-L. Etter, Tacitus in der Geistesgeschichte des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Basel, 1966);
94. G. Spini, 'The Art of History in the Italian Counter Reformation', in E. Cochrane, ed., The Late Italian Renaissance (London, 1970), pp. 91-133 (esp. pp. 114-33);
95. K. C. Schellhase, Tacitus in Renaissance Political Thought (Chicago, 1976);
96. the essays by P. Burke, 'Tacitism', in T. A. Dorey, ed., Tacitus (London, 1969), pp. 149-71
97. and 'Tacitism, Scepticism, and Reason of State', in J. H. Burns and M. Goldie, eds., The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450-1700 (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 479-98;
98. and R. Tuck, Philosophy and Government, 1572-1651 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 31-136.
99. Ebert, Quinquagenta relationes, pp. 317-76.
100. G. Toffanin, Machiavelli e il 'tacitismo' (Padua, 1921).
101. Tuck, Philosophy and Government, pp. 74-78 (Malvezzi);
102. Etter, Tacitus in der Geistesgeschichte, pp. 167-68 (Lentulus).
103. See T. Boccalini, Ragguagli di Parnasso, ed. G. Rua and L. Firpo, 3 vols. (Bari, 1910-48), i, pp. 326-28 (cent. 1, rag. 89); ii, pp. 247-49 (cent. 2, rag. 71).
104. The most penetrating study of Boccalini's attitude to Tacitus and Machiavelli is M. Sterpos, 'Boccalini tacitista di fronte al Machiavelli', Studi secenteschi, 12 (1971), pp. 255-83.
105. Many 17th-century writers penetrated less far, however; the Dutch scholar Theodore Ryck, editing Tacitus, distinguished Machiavelli (a supporter of tyrants) from Tacitus (an exposer of the devices of princes), and blamed Boccalini for assimilating Tacitus to the Machiavellian tradition (Tacitus, Opera quae exstant, ed. T. Ryck ['Ryckius'] (Leiden, 1687), sig.9).
106. For such use of Boccalini see M. Stolleis, Arcana imperii und Ratio status: Bemerkung zur politischen Theorie des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 1980), pp. 26-29.
107. La bilancia politico di tutte le opere di Traiano Boccalini, ed. G. Leti, 2 vols. ('Castellana' [Geneva], 1678), i, p. 85 ('Guardatevi dunque voi, che negoziate co' Prencipi, dai concetti maliziosi, e dall'empiastro di morbide parole; perché quando dolcemente cantano, allhora crudelmente incantano. L'interesse muove la loro lingua, non la giustizia, e non l'amore del Ben-publico').
108. In the Introduction printed before the other edition of this commentary, Boccalini explained that he had written the Ragguagli 'with a mask on my face' ('con la Maschera sul volto'); now, he said, he wanted to show 'the deeds and secret intentions of princes past and present' ('i fatti, e l'intentioni secreti de' Principi passati, e presenti') (Comentarii di Traiano Boccalini romano sopra Cornelio Tacito, 2nd edn. ('Cosmopoli' [Geneva?], 1678), sig. †4.
109. Ebert, Quinquagenta relationes, pp. 182 ('Taciturn & Justinum diligenter legendos; ilium quod Aulicum formaret, hunc vero quod Consiliarium'), 197 ('Tacitum scribere Arcana aulicorum').
110. B. Grecián, L'Homme de cour, tr. N. Amelot de la Houssaie (Paris, 1684);
111. this was reprinted fourteen times between 1686 and 1716 (see B. Grecián, The Oracle, ed. and tr. L. B. Walton (London, 1962), p. 44).
112. The first German translation, by J. L. Sauter, was similarly entitled L'Homme de Cour, oder der heutige politische Well- und Staats-Weise (Frankfurt am Main, 1687).
113. Grecián was himself deeply influenced by Boccalini: see Hendrix, Traiano Boccalini, pp. 75-84.
114. On Pérez see G. Marañón, Antonio Pérez (el hombre, el drama, la época), 7th edn., 2 vols. (Madrid, 1963): for details of the original printings of these works see ii, pp. 954-55. Ebert probably read the Relaciones and the various sets of Aphorismos in the 1676 Geneva edition, Las obras y relaciones de Antonio Perez; for examples of court-related aphorisms see pp. 402, 404, 727, 731.
115. Ebert, tr., Historia captivitatis Francisci I., sig.2r ('arcana Ministerii Comitis & Ducis OLIVARII RICHELIIQUE & MAZARINI Cardinalium, CLARENDONIIQUE Comitis & Greifenfeldii aliorumque complexae'). Peder Schuhmacher Griffenfeld was the powerful minister of the Danish kings Frederick III and Christian V.
116. Schreiben welches der vorlengst verstorbene hochgelahrte Herr Don Franciscus de Quevedo ... übershcicket betreffende einige statistische ... Discursen so zwischen denen verstorbenen Hn: Protectore von Engellandt dem schwedischen Reichs-Cantzler Ochsenstern und Lilienströhmen (n.p., 1659), e.g. sigs. C3v (on Cromwell's arrangement of his son's succession, calling it 'ratio status'), C4r (on his gradual accumulation of power), C4v ('Indem Ew. Hoheit den Engelländern nur umbras und simulacra, nur Schatten und Bildnüsse, wie Tacitus und Boxhornius, Embl. 17. es nennen, hergemachet'). There were several editions and continuations of this work: see G. Berghaus, Die Aufnahme der englischen Revolution in Deutschland, 1640-1669 (Wiesbaden, 1989), pp. 316-19. Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn taught at Leiden University, and published an edition of Tacitus in 1643. This reference is to his Emblemata politica, 2nd edn. (Amsterdam, 1651), pp. 134-36.
117. [H. Fletcher,] Politicus sine exemple, oder kurtzer Begriff der Kriegs- und Staalshandlungen seiner Hoheit Olivier Cromwels, tr. anon (Nuremberg, 1663). For Ebert's reference see above, n. 30.
118. [H. Fletcher,] The Perfect Politician, 2nd edn. (London, 1680), p. 281. The German translator's Preface praises his political skills even more highly: Politicus sine exemplo, pp. 1-2.
119. A. Paioli, Vite del Turena, del Mazarini e del Cromvele (Bologna, 1680), pp. 234 (Machiavelli), 239 ('isquisitamente Politico'), 240 ('non può negarsi ch'egli fosse soggetto di straordinari talenti').
120. Leti, Historia, i, p. 5 ('la Terra non hebbe mai un Governatore più prudente di Lui, nè un Condottore più destro della sua propria fortuna ... Egli fu amico senza fede, nemico senza rancore, Giudice senza Giustitia, gran Politico tra li disordini ... & in somma un compendio del maggior maie, & un'Epilogo del più gran bene'). It is also noteworthy that de Galardi defended the style he had adopted by reference to a French translation of Tacitus: La Tyrannie heureuse, sig.5r.
121. There is no general study of continental representations of Cromwell. For a very brief overview, see W. C. Abbott, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1937-47), iv, pp. 883-4.
122. On Beckmann see C. G. Jöcher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon, 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1750-51), i, cols. 994-95
123. and F. Palladini, Discussioni seicentesche su Samuel Pufendorf: scritti latini, 1663-1700 (n.p. [Bologna], 1978), pp. 284-85. For his praise of Ebert see his Notitia universitatis francofurtanae, pp. 118-19. Beckmann may also have given Ebert the idea of becoming a translator of politically interesting texts: he published a translation of James I's Basilikon down (Jacobi donum regium, sive de institutione principis (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1679)).
124. J. C. Beckmann, Meditationes politicae, iisdemque continuandis & illustrandis addita politico parallela (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1679), pp. 5-7 (writers), 24 ('Ingeniosissimum Hobbes), 31 ('ratio status'), 47-53, 85-86, 417-18 (defence of Hobbes). (This edition, the third of the Meditationes, includes the first printing of a second work, the Politico parallela.) All references to Hobbes were omitted from his later political treatise, Conspectus doctrinae politicae, but the essential theory remained unchanged; and that work did also include the statement that 'Machiavelli too is not as bad as he is popularly supposed to be' ('Machiavellum quoq[ue] tam malum non esse, quam vulgo creditur': p. 6).
125. W. von Schröder ['Schröter'], Dissertatio academica, cuius prima pars de ratione status, altera de nobilitate, tertia de minutrissimo (Jena, 1663); this dissertation was presided over by S. C. Olpe, Rector Magnificus of the University of Jena, and Beckmann refers to it as his work (Meditationes, p. 44). On the reaction to it see Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes, pp. 512-13.
126. Chatsworth, MS Hobbes E 1 A (unfoliated; the entries are given here in the order in which they appear). A forthcoming edition of this MS, by the late Richard Talaska, has been promised by the Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green, Ohio.
127. The claim is made in 'T. Hobbes' (attrib.), Three Discourses: A Critical Modern Edition of Newly Identified Work of the Young Hobbes, ed. N. B. Reynolds and A. W. Saxonhouse (Chicago, 1995).
128. For the original text of this discourse see Anon. [W. Cavendish], Horae subsecivae: Observations and Discourses (London, 1620), pp. 223-324.
129. Cf. Richard Tuck's comments in his 'Hobbes and Tacitus', in G. A. J. Rogers and T. Sorell, eds., Hobbes and History (London, 2000), pp. 99-111, esp. p. 109.
130. Tönnies edn., pp. 29, 39.
131. For a valuable analysis of how non-rational behaviour can be found at all
132. Tönnies edn., p. 158.
133. Tönnies edn., pp. 143-44.
134. T. Hobbes, De cive (Paris, 1642), XIII.14.
135. T. Hobbes, Leviathan (London, 1651), p. 107.
136. Tönnies edn., p. 38.
137. Hobbes, Leviathan, p. 34.