Jesuit Neo-Latin epigrams on the Hungarian white wine Tokaji.

[Wine] / [Jesuits] / [Neo Latin] / Samuel Timon. Tibisci Ungariae fluvii notio, vagique ex parte a Samuele Timon Societatis Jesu, Sacerdote, breviter perscripta. Cassoviae [Košice, Slovakia]: Typis Collegii Academici Soc. Jesu, 1767. 8vo [17.9 x 10.7 cm], 136 pp., [9] pp., with woodcut title-page vignette, head-pieces and tail-pieces. Bound in later paper wrappers with “1767” stamped on upper cover. Wrappers a bit toned. Minor spotting and toning in some quires.
 
 
Very rare (1 U.S. copy: Library of Congress) second edition (first ed. 1735; no U.S. copies) of this unusual Latin treatise devoted to the River Tisza in Hungary, written by the Jesuit Samuel Timon (1765-1736). The work is of oenological interest for its series of 28 Neo-Latin epigrams exploring the varieties of the Hungarian white wine Tokaji (“De Vino Tocaiano Commune epigramma,” pp. 80-87).
 
Gábor Tüskés’s recent article on Simon’s “De Vino Tocaiano” summarizes the epigram cycle neatly. He notes that it, “represents a peculiar attempt at poetic myth-making embedded in a topographical description. The cycle is introduced by a longer and shorter epigram, both addressing the entire wine region. These are followed by twenty-six further epigrams, each with its own title, which mostly characterize the wines of the individual settlements on the River Tisza. All but one of the short epigrams consist of a distich, with one consisting of a single verse. The epigrams generally characterize the wines of the individual towns in order of quality, and most of the titles are derived from the names of these settlements. The cycle was most likely inspired by the wine catalog in Book II of Virgil’s Georgics (2.89–108). Knowledge of Horace’s two Bacchus odes (Carm. 2.19; 3.25) can also be assumed. The basis for this is the recognition that wines of different characters and qualities are produced in the vicinity of the individual towns. Timon added short explanations to some expressions and titles. The total number of wine regions mentioned in the titles is twenty-four, since four distiches were titled ‘Plura junctim’ (‘Several together’), ‘Adulterinum’ (‘Wine adulteration’), ‘Ad Gurgulum’ (‘At Gurgulus’), and ‘Alterum’ (‘Another’), while three place names are found in the title of one epigram” (pp. 240-41).
 
 
OCLC and KVK locate only 1 U.S. copy of this 1767 edition (Library of Congress) and no U.S. copies of the 1735 first edition (Cassoviae: Typis academicis per Joannem Henricum Frauenheim, 1735).
 
*Gábor Tüskés, “Neulateinische Jesuitendichtung zum Lob des Tokajer-Weins,” in Drogenpoesie der Frühen Neuzeit: Studien und Editionen zur Literaturgeschichte von Tabak, Wein, Bier, W.  Kühlmann, ed., pp. 229-56.