Ad usum Delphini


The Delphin Classics or Ad usum Delphini was a series of annotated editions of the Latin classics, intended to be comprehensive, which was originally created in the 17th century.
The first volumes were created in the 1670s for Louis, le Grand Dauphin, heir of Louis XIV, and were written entirely in Latin. Thirty-nine scholars contributed to the series, which was edited by Pierre Huet with assistance from several co-editors, including Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Anne Dacier. The main features included the main Latin texts; a paraphrase in the margins or below in simpler Latin prose ; extended notes on specific words and lines, mainly about history, myth, geography, or natural sciences; and indices. One useful pedagogical feature of this series is that it keeps students reading and working in the target language..
The original volumes each had an engraving of Arion and the Dolphin, accompanied by the inscription in usum serenissimi Delphini. The collection includes 64 volumes published from 1670 to 1698.
The Ad Usum Delphini series were reprinted for centuries, and served in classrooms across Europe and the Americas. Beginning in 1819 a series of Latin classics was published in England under the name Delphin Classics by Abraham John Valpy. This series was edited by George Dyer, who produced 143 volumes.
The expression Ad usum Delphini was sometimes used on other texts which had been expurgated because they contained passages considered inappropriate for the youth, and has been used pejoratively to indicate any work expurgated for the sake of younger audiences, and not just this series of Latin texts and commentaries.

Publishing history

AuthorEditorDate and place of publication, Number of volumes
SallusteDaniel CrispinParis, 1674
Cornelius NeposNicolas CourtinParis, 1675
PhèdrePierre DanetParis, 1675
TérenceNicolas le CamusParis, 1675
Velleius PaterculusRobert Riguez, S. J.Paris, 1675
Panegyria VeteresJacques de la Beaune, S. J.Paris, 1676
JustinPierre Joseph Cantel, S. J.Paris, 1676
ClaudienGuillaume Pyrrhon Paris, 1677
Jules CésarJean Goduin, professeur à ParisParis, 1678
Quinte CurceMichel le Tellier, S. J.Paris, 1678
ManiliusMichel La Faye ; Pierre Daniel Huet, Remarques sur Manilius,et Julius Caesar Scaliger, NotesParis, 1679
PlauteJacques de l'OuvreParis, 1679, 2 vol.
Tite-LiveJean DouiatParis, 1679,6 vol.
Valère MaximePierre Joseph Cantel, S. J.Paris, 1679
BoècePierre Cally, professeur à CaenParis, 1680
Dictys de Crète et Dares de PhrygieAnne Dacier, fille de Tanneguy LefebvreParis, 1680
LucrèceMichel La Faye Paris, 1680
MartialVincent Colesson, professeur de droitParis, 1680
Aulu-GelleJacques Proust, S. J.Paris, 1681
Aurelius VictorAnne Dacier, fille de Tanneguy LefebvreParis, 1681
Sextus Pompeius, Festus, et M. Vernus FlaccusAndré DacierParis, 1681
Cicéron, Livres qui concernent l'art oratoireJacques Proust, S. J.Paris, 1682,2 vol.
TaciteJulien PichonParis, 1682,4 vol.
VirgileCharles de la Rue, S. J.Paris, 1682
EutropeAnne Dacier, fille de Tanneguy LefebvreParis, 1683
Cicéron, DiscoursCharles de Mérouville, S. J.Paris, 1684, 3 vol.
Juvénal et PerseLouis DesprezParis, 1684
SuétoneAugustin BabelonParis, 1684
Catulle, Tibulle et PropercePhilippe DuboisParis, 1685,2 vol.
Cicéron, Épîtres adfamiliaresPhilibert QuartierParis, 1685
Pline l'ancien, Histoire naturelleJean Hardouin, S. J.Paris, 1685,5 vol.
StaceClaude BeraultParis, 1685, 2 vol.
PrudenceEtienne Chamillard, S. J.Paris, 1687
ApuléeJules Fleury, chanoine de ChartresParis, 1688, 2 vol.
Cicéron, Ouvrages philosophiquesFrançois L'Honoré, S. J.Paris, 1689
OvideDaniel CrispinLyon, 1689,4 vol.
HoraceLouis DesprezParis, 1691,2 vol.
Pline l'ancien, Histoire naturelleJean Hardouin, S. J.Paris, 1723, 3 vol. in fol.
AusoneJules Fleury ; Jean-Baptiste SouchayParis, 1730

Reception and influence

The Ad usum Delphini collection was referred to by E.T.A. Hoffmann in Lebensansichten des Katers Murr.

„Sie sind, unterbrach ihn der Prinz, ein spaßhafter Mann.“ — Ganz und gar nicht, fuhr Kreisler fort, ich liebe zwar den Spaß, aber nur den schlechten, und der ist nun wieder nicht spaßhaft. Gegenwärtig wollt' ich gern nach Neapel gehen, und beim Molo einige gute Fischer- und Banditenlieder aufschreiben ad usum delphini.

The Ad usum Delphini collection was referred to by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in Devereux, Book IV :

let me turn to Milord Bolingbroke, and ask him whether England can produce a scholar equal to Peter Huet, who in twenty years wrote notes to sixty-two volumes of Classics, for the sake of a prince who never read a line in one of them?"
"We have some scholars," answered Bolingbroke; "but we certainly have no Huet. It is strange enough, but learning seems to me like a circle: it grows weaker the more it spreads. We now see many people capable of reading commentaries, but very few indeed capable of writing them."

by Honoré de Balzac III: Ève et David, later Les souffrances de l'inventeur,.

History is of two kinds--there is the official history
taught in schools, a lying compilation ad usum delphini; and there is
the secret history which deals with the real causes of events--a
scandalous chronicle.

There is a reference to the Delphin Classics in Part I, Chapter 5 of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure,, where young Jude, trying to educate himself by reading while delivering bread from a horse and cart,

"plunge into the simpler passages from Caesar, Virgil, or Horace The only copies he had been able to lay hands on were old Delphin editions, because they were superseded, and therefore cheap. But, bad for idle school-boys, it did so happen that they were passably good for him."

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