It is the critical edition of the Tragedies of L. Anneo Seneca, edited by Johann Friedrich Gronovius, here in its first edition of 1661, printed by Lugduni Batavorum, Ex Officina Elzeviriana.

The first great peculiarity is that during a restoration work, which saw the change of the binding, a beautiful parchment presumably from the late 18th and early 19th century with a beautiful calligraphic title on the spine that reports the name of the author and the title of the work, sees a strip applied to the date reporting the publication information of the second edition, Amsterdam in the typography of Plumer Jost, 1662.

Following a check and an in-depth research the two editions 1661 and 1662 are completely identical.

It is rather unusual to see Elzevier editions in this size and format, and a prior owner clearly thought so as well, as they attempted to paste down the printer details of another imprint over the actual date.

But although particularly curious, the first page of the book leaves room for the beautiful frontispiece, a very particular chalcographic engraving, which represents various scenes, presumably taken from the 10 Senecan tragedies. The lower part is dominated by a hooded female figure, who rests on a slab where the title of the work is reported, with two female figures with bare torsos on the sides, with snakes instead of hair, one of them with a torch in her hand. At the feet of the central figure, there are the bodies of two dead children. Most likely it is the protagonist of the most dramatic tragedy, Medea, flanked by the Furies, with the bodies of her two children at her feet, killed by her to take revenge on Jason. The work presents a dedication to Charles I of the Palatinate, an account of the witnesses of Seneca's tragedies, and finally the text of the tragedies accompanied by the philological commentary of Gronovius. A work that I consider important, at least because it concerns the Latin author that I love the most for his horrific style!