T. Maccius Plautus, Comedies, Vol. II [1934]

Title: Comedies. Volume II.

Author: T. Maccius Plautus (c. 250–184 BCE) [Roman comedy writer, the earliest Latin author known to have works preserved in their entirety, author of, among others, *Aulularia* and *Miles gloriosus*]

Edited by: Translated, with an introduction and summary by Gustaw Przychocki

Publisher: Published by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Kraków

Year of publication: 1934. Series: Library of Translations from Ancient Literature, No. 7.

Format: 20 cm.

Number of pages: 528

Binding: Publisher’s cloth.

The second volume of a four-volume translation of Plautus’s comedies, published by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences between 1931 and 1937 (Vol. III was published in 1935, Vol. IV in 1937), is part of the first Polish translation of all the surviving comedies by the Roman author. This volume contains five plays: "The Merchant," "The Boastful Soldier," "The Fears," "Pseudolus," and "The Treasure," also known as "Aulularia." It was this last play that served as Molière’s model for “The Miser,” and “The Boastful Soldier” is among the most widely read and staged comedies in Przychocki’s translation. The translator provided the edition with a historical and literary introduction, as well as summaries and commentaries on the individual plays, giving it the character of a scholarly publication rather than a purely literary one. The project was endorsed by a well-established institution: The Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1872 through the reorganization of the Krakow Scientific Society, and after Poland regained its independence—now as the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences—became the official representative of Polish scholarship.

Behind the Polish translation of Plautus stands Gustaw Edward Przychocki (1884–1947), a classical philologist born in Gromnik near Tarnów. He studied archaeology and classical philology at Jagiellonian University from 1903 to 1909, supplementing his education in Vienna, Berlin, and Oxford; he defended his doctoral dissertation on Ovid in 1909. He was affiliated with the University of Warsaw from 1919; he served as its rector from 1928 to 1929, and in 1935 he returned to Kraków as a professor at the Jagiellonian University; From 1923 onward, he was a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. His biography extends beyond the classroom—as a lieutenant colonel in the Polish Army’s artillery, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari for the defense of Płock in 1921. Author of the monograph *Plautus* (1925), he died in 1947 in Kraków.

This volume is of interest to classical philologists, scholars of ancient theater, and collectors of the interwar publications of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The piece is in very good condition. The original cloth binding is clean and stiff, with no discoloration, stains, or scuffs; the corners are straight. The block is compact and stable; the original stitching is strong, and the folds are even. The paper is of good weight, bright and clean, free from foxing, water stains, waviness, and edge creases.

Catalog ID: 10561x2-20-A-X