Joannis Alberti Hesychiou Lexikon. Hesychii LexiconJohannes Alberti (March 6, 1698 in Assen – 13

Johannes Alberti (March 6, 1698 in Assen – 13 August 1762, Leiden), was a Dutch theologian. Alberti was offered the position of professor of theology at the University of Leiden from 1740. Alberti excelled in literary exercises and published in Leiden in 1746 the first part of Hesychius' dictionary. The scholars were not disappointed at the publication, and the book confirmed the great fame of Alberti. He was already far along in writing the second part of the dictionary when, in 1749, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The baths of Aachen and Spa, which he visited to find relief, suppressed the disease, but for three years he was unable to work. Even after his slow recovery, he was left with a persistent, partial paralysis of his hands, such that he could barely lift the pages of his books and found it very hard to write. Nevertheless, he continued to work for ten more years. He had finished the complete alphabet of Hesychius except for a few letters, when he succumbed to scarlet fever. The second part of the dictionary of Hesychius appeared in Leyden in 1762 due to the efforts of Ruhnkenius.

Hesychius of Alexandria (Greek:  ¬?σ?χιος  «  ¬?λεξανδρε?ς, HŽ?sychios ho Alexandreus, "Hesychios the Alexandrian") was a Greek grammarian who, probably in the 5th or 6th century AD, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived, probably by absorbing the works of earlier lexicographers. The work, titled "Alphabetical Collection of All Words" (Συναγωγ «? Πασ ¨?ν Λ??ξεων κατ «ø Στοιχε ¨?ον, SynaggŽ? Pasn Lexen kata Stoicheion), includes more than 50,000 entries, a copious list of peculiar words, forms and phrases, with an explanation of their meaning, and often with a reference to the author who used them or to the district of Greece where they were current. Hence, the book is of great value to the student of the Ancient Greek dialects and in the restoration of the text of the classical authors generally – particularly of such writers as Aeschylus and Theocritus, who used many unusual words. Hesychius is important, not only for Greek philology, but also for studying lost languages and obscure dialects (such as Thracian) and in reconstructing Proto-Indo-European. Many of the words that are included in this work are not found in surviving ancient Greek texts. Hesychius' explanations of many epithets and phrases also reveal many important facts about the religion and social life of the ancients.

Greek text printed in double columns with footnotes in Latin.

1604 pages. Numbered per column, thus 802 pages today. Boards covered with vellum. 3.7 kilograms in weight.

Pasted on front page a small sticker mentioning that this copy belonged to Reverend Gottlieb Wilhelm Anthonie van der Lingen of the Paarl, who was instrumental in the founding of the Paarl Gimnasium school.