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SUIDAS

Volume 20 · 413 words · 1842 Edition

a Greek lexicographer, is supposed by Fabricius to have lived during the latter part of the eleventh century; but other writers are disposed to believe that he must have belonged to a more recent period. His country and his personal history are alike unknown. From authors of various denominations he compiled an ample dictionary, which, with all its imperfections, has been found a most valuable repository of ancient erudition; and no scholar, intimately acquainted with the Greek language and literature, is unacquainted with the Lexicon of Suidas. The first edition, which is very elegantly printed, was published by Demetrius Chalcondylus, Mediol. 1499, fol. He had access to several manuscripts. The text of Aldus has some appearance of being derived from a different source, Venet. 1514, fol. A third edition, with various interpolations, followed after a longer interval, Basil. 1544, fol. It was succeeded by the Latin version of Wolfius, Basil. 1564, fol. Basil. 1581, fol. An edition of the Greek text, accompanied with a Latin version, was published by Amelius Portus, Colon. Allobrog. 1619, 2 tom. fol. A splendid and valuable edition was at length produced by Küster, Cantab. 1705, 3 tom. fol. Here the version of Portus has received innumerable corrections; and from the collation of manuscripts, as well as by the aid of his own critical sagacity, he effected a great reformation of the text. He was a man of superior talents, and of profound erudition; but it is admitted that he ought to have devoted a greater portion of time to so formidable an undertaking. His edition was assailed by J. Gronovius in three different publications; and to this virulent critic Küster replied in a Diatribe Anti-Gronoviana, of which a second edition was printed at Amsterdam, 1712, 8vo. The text of Suidas was afterwards illustrated by many other writers, nor must we fail to mention the elaborate work of Toup, Emendationes in Suidam, Lond. 1760-6, 3 tom. 8vo. Oxon. 1790, 4 tom. 8vo. The labours of these learned men prepared the way for a most valuable edition, recently published under the following title: "Suida Lexicon post Ludolphum Küsterum ad codices manuscriptos recensuit Thomas Gaisford, S.T.P.; Edis Christi Decanus, necnon Graecae Linguae Professor Regius," Oxon. 1834, 3 tom. fol. The third volume is very thin, and merely includes three Indices. By his edition of Suidas, Dr. Gaisford has made a great accession to his former reputation in a department of learning in which he has no living rival in Great Britain.