GREEK & LATIN ~ CLASSICS

Aldine Edition ofLucan's Epic Pharsalia

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•  First Aldine edition of Lucan's Pharsalia, the greatest epic poem in Latin after the Aeneid, on the subject of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar.

Born in Córdoba, Spain, Lucan (A.D. 39–65) was the grandson of the elder Seneca, nephew of the younger Seneca, and the brother of the Gallio mentioned in Acts 18. He published the Pharsalia in A.D. 62 or 63, but it seems likely that his poetic talent aroused the jealously of the vain Nero, as after its publication the emperor forbade him to write or even plead in the courts, and then later compelled him to commit suicide for alleged treason.

The editio princeps of Lucan was printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1469. This edition is based on the text of the Venice 1493 edition and improved upon by Aldus after an old manuscript given to him by Marco Antonio Mauroceno, who contributed the prefatory note. The short life of Lucan appended at the end is drawn from Tacitus.

This is anice and early Aldine with spacious margins, printed in the famous Aldine italic with guide letters and space left for initials (unaccomplished). The famous anchor and dolphin device is not found here for it did not make its first appearance until late in 1502, when one issue of Dante's Terze rime introduced the image to the world presses — this dates to the earlier part of that year. A second Aldine edition was issued in 1515.

Evidence of readership: One underlining and one inked correction of a typo.

•  Schweiger, II, 560; Renouard 33, 3; Goldsmid 40; Brunet, III, 1198; Adams L1557; Isaac 12775.   20th-century vellum over boards, spine very faintly blind-stamped just with author, printer, and date inked or black-stamped; early inked “Lucanus” on top edge. A couple ink spots on the fore-edge. Title-page with old Inkstain (covering an ownership inscription?) seeping through to next leaf and old round ownership stamp mostly erased; small pink water (or wine) stain in upper outer corner terminating at f. [33]; traces in some margins of old inactive mildew and mild foxing; a couple of old ink. A good copy for one's “Bibliotheca Aldina Vetustior.”  (30101)

An EarlyENGLISH Translation

Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus [Lucan].

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•  Second edition of May’s esteemed English verse translation, following Thomas Jones’s first printing of 1627.

The editio princeps of the Pharsalia was printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1469; Christopher Marlowe published the first English translation of any part of the Pharsalia, his rendition of the first book, in 1600, with a 1614 effort by Sir Arthur Gorges being the only other such to precede May’s standard-setting 1626 English version of books one through three.

In the present volume, this great epic poem in May’s translation is accompanied by its translator’s English rendition of his own sequel, originally written in Latin verse. This Continuation advances the action through Cleopatra’s seduction of Caesar (May depicts the Egyptian queen with “snowie necke” and “golden tresses”), the death of Cato, and various additional battles before arriving at Caesar’s death. At the time, May’s work was thought highly enough of that Charles I allowed the Continuation’s dedication to bear his name.

•  Pharsalia: STC 16888; Schweiger, II, 567; ESTC S108868. Continuation: STC 17712; ESTC S108892. 20th-century black morocco in imitation of early, severe style, with raised bands from which blind-tooling extends onto covers; spine with gilt-stamped title and date, and turn-ins elaborately tooled in blind. Moderately worn, spine faded not unattractively, and leather rubbed over joints. Front pastedown with bookplate, inked date of 1986; front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1944. T1-2 trimmed differently and possibly surviving from another copy; A3 of the continuation also possibly supplied. Occasional instances of very minor staining; mostly clean. Pleasant on shelf and in hand. (7101)

AGAIN Lucan English’d

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•  THIRD edition, following the first of 1627, of Thomas May’s English translation of Lucan’s epic poem . . .

•  ESTC S108867; STC (2nd ed.) 16889. Continuation: ESTC S108892; STC (2nd ed.) 17712. Both: Lowndes, III, 1408. Period-style calf by Grace (signed “GB” on lower back turn-in), framed and panelled in gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Outer and lower edges of the engraved title-page of second work shaved, touching design. Light waterstaining to upper portions of approx. 25 ff. of Continuation; small area of worming to lower inner margins of a few leaves, touching the occasional catchword but not main text.

“A Valuable Edition” — per Dibdin

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•  First edition of Pieter Burman’s edition of the Pharsalia, Lucan’s account of the Roman Civil War — the greatest epic poem in Latin after the Aeneid. The engraved title-page vignette was done by J. Van der Spyk after a design by J. de Groot.

Binding / Provenance: Contemporary calf, framed in gilt triple fillets and panelled in gilt quadruple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt-stamped central coat of arms of the Wilder family, with the motto “Virtuti moenia cedant.”

•  Schweiger, II, 565; Dibdin, II, 186–87. Binding as above, rebacked making use of most of the original spine, spine with gilt-stamped compartments and gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges worn and rubbed, portions of original spine leather cracked and chipped. Front pastedown with small abraded area; front fly-leaf with inked inscriptions dated 1834 and 1938. Some leaves with faint waterstaining in upper margins and lower outer corners. Attractive.

Lucan BearingPlates after Gravelot

Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus.

•  The illustrated plates in this edition are after Gravelot, and the French translation is by M. Marmontel.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with badge of a thistle in compartments; red leather labels. Marbled endpapers. All edges red.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Binding as above, gilt somewhat dimmed; some chipping of leather to corners and spine tips, and endpapers rubbed. Internally generally clean, with some browning from turn-ins and a few spots of soiling. Bookplate on front pastedowns.

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A Simple & Workman-likeBipontine Edition

•  This unassuming, rather “homey” octavo edition of 1783 was printed in Zweibrücken at the ducal printing office, noted for printing a number of fine editions of the classics. In addition to the usual preliminaries and the advertised notitia literaria, a very useful list and discussion of the editions of Lucan printed up to that point is also included in this, the first Bipontine edition of that author. The volume’s one ornament is a striking engraved vignette on the title-page that shows the head of Pompey being offered to Caesar.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 565; Dibdin (4th ed.), An Introduction to . . . Greek and Latin Classics, I, 188. Brown paper over light boards, spine with now-illegible paper label; stained and faded, corners bumped. A little foxing and soiling on endpapers and half-title; otherwise internally clean. Bookplate with inked date on front pastedown. All edges heavily speckled red.

Lucan for theFirst Republic

Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus.

•  The illustrated plates in this edition are after Perrin, and the French translation is by Brébeuf.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra with red labels and covers gilt-framed; gilt edges and gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers in a French shell pattern. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Leather on spines and edges of covers dry and chipped; joints open, but sewing holding. Some closed tears to endpapers and front free endpaper of vol. I partially detached; paper generally clean with occasional spots of light browning or foxing. Bookplate on front pastedowns. Plates clean and charming.

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Parasites in Apotheosis

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•  Whether Lucian is truly the author of this work (The Parasite) is still open to some contention. In it he, or the real author, weighs in on the age-old question of whether philosophy or rhetoric is the higher art form and instead proves both ironically and satirically that parasitism is the highest of all art forms.

Text entirely in elegant Greek and with but one woodcut initial. The printer's device of a Pegasus is on the title-page.

Rare: We find no copy in WorldCat or COPAC. Moreau locates one copy in the Anglo world, at the Morgan Library.

•  Moreau, V, 228.   Full dark modern calf old style, absolutely plain without labels; spine with raised bands accented with blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils, and simple blind double fillets to covers. One old numeral inked to title-page; text unmarked with paper clean and even bright, throughout.  (25728)

Classically Inspired Exploits & aSigned Crimson Binding

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. 

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•  First edition: An introductory survey of Roman history and literature precedes these 19th-century hits — retellings of heroic episodes of classical times done by the 1st Baron Macaulay, a politician, historian, and essayist. Present here are “Horatius,” “Battle of the Lake Regillus,” “Virginia,” and “The Prophecy of Capys.”

Binding:  Late 19th- or early 20th-century full crimson calf, covers framed in triple gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands, gilt-stamped title and author labels, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Top edge gilt. The publisher's original brown cloth spine and blind-stamped covers arebound in at the back of the volume. Signed: Front free endpaper stamped “Root & Son.”

•  Hayward 258; Tinker 1509; NSTC 2M1220.   Binding as above, carefully refurbished; edges and extremities mildly rubbed, sides with unobtrusive scuffs and a few small smudges. Previous owner's small ticket on back pastedown, slightly scraped. Two leaves with offsetting from now-absent laid-in slip. Last few leaves with pinhole worming in lower margins, not touching text; worming to back fly-leaves and endpapers neatly repaired. Endpapers foxed; pages age-toned with occasional faint spots or smudges, generally clean. Solid and very attractive.  (29456)

Euphony Cacophony Versification & CompLit

•  Mitford (1744–1827), a historian of ancient Greece, sometime member of Parliament, and principally a gentleman of means, here presents the second edition of his study of versification in English — including Anglo-Saxon and Middle-English, and with comparisons to Classical Latin and Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish. There is even a chapter on Oriental and Celtic versification! First published anonymously in 1774 as An essay upon the harmony of language, intended principally to illustrate that of the English language, the work in this edition boasts “ improvement and large addition.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Recent quarter calf, round spine; raised bands accented with gilt beading, gilt center devices in spine compartments, and two green spine labels. Combed-pattern marbled paper sides. Lacks the half-title, only; occasional light foxing. A very good copy of an interesting and now uncommon book.  (22228)

School Text 1791 — “Muretus” a
  MODEL  for Students

•  Marc Antoine Muret (1526–85), better known by the Latin form of his name, Muretus, started his literary career in Paris as a member of the circle of young poets that also included Dorat and Ronsard, and in 1553 he published a French commentary on Ronsard’s Amours. He later moved to Italy, where he became one of the leading classicists of his day. He has long been recognized as the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance, and his works were used, as this textbook exemplifies, as a model for students. Vol. I of this work contains selections from his speeches, while vol. II contains letters. This particular collection of Muretus for students was apparently first published in 1739 and regularly republished during the 18th century. An engraved portrait of Muretus serves as the frontispiece for vol. I.

Rare.  No copies traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC or RLIN.

•  On Muretus, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, 148–52. Contemporary half vellum over stencilled paper, spine with inked title; stained and paper torn with much chipping, especially on edges of covers. Ex-library with white-lettered call number on spines and, on title-pages, two different Catholic institutions’ rubber-stamps, plus the old inked ownership inscription of a Jesuit novitiate (Maryland). Ink scratches to frontispiece portrait (intentional?), and some inkstains in margins elsewhere. Lightly foxed. All edges speckled red.

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He Wrote Beautiful Latin & He Found Protection in the Vatican

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•  First edition of Muret's classical commentaries to include the Hymni. The Variae, first published complete in 15 books in 1580, include excerpts from and explanations of both Greek and Latin texts, especially Cicero. A separate title-page introduces the Hymni (verses recited on specific holy days), followed by poems about illustrious contemporaries of Muret's — e.g., Raphael — and an index to the previous 15 books.

The French humanist Muret (1526–85) has long been recognized as the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance, and his works were used as a model for students. Greatly admired for his excellent understanding and interpretation of classical texts, he was dubbed “le meilleur orateur du temps” in Italy and France by Montaigne, whom he tutored; and Scaliger mused that Muret “satirised the Ciceronians and at the same time expressed himself in a thoroughly Ciceronian style.” LIke most of Muret's published work, these Variae are based on his academic lectures; however the scholar Lambinus accused Muret of plagiarism, and indeed it seems Muret “borrowed” bits from his work without permission. (In retaliation, Lambinus published their personal correspondence.)

Muret's personal life was fraught with tribulation stemming from multiple accusations of homosexuality in various cities where he resided. From 1559 till his death, however, he lived in Rome under the protection of at least one cardinal and a pope.

The text is in Latin and Greek, printed in roman and italic, with decorative headpieces and floriated initials. A letterpress diagram on p. 547 shows the Greek alphabet corresponding to numerals.

Provenance:  John Saltar (19th-century adolescent's signature, front pastedown); Henry Johns Gibbons, Rittenhouse (Philadelphia), 1923 (signature, front fly-leaf verso).

•  Adams M1971. On Muret, see: Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, II, pp. 148–52.   Contemporary vellum with evidence of four ties and trace of oval stamp to front cover center, ink title to spine and bottom edge; soiled, with worm to spine/ pastedowns, hinges (inside) cracked, textblock starting to loosen. Paper age-toned and foxed, with small holes from natural flaws on two leaves (and two others partially uncut); Hymni dampstained in lower inner portions (not horribly). A few early ink annotations present.  (30146)

The ANCIENT ART ofFISHING

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•  Oppian (fl. ca. A.D. 225) lived in Cilicia, in southeast Asia Minor. He wrote this work in five books on fishing in Greek hexameter, and another work, on hunting, is sometimes also attributed to him. William Diaper (d. 1717) prepared this translation, in English verse, and it was taken to the publisher by John Jones, who dedicated it to the Marquis of Carnarvon. The press's engraved vignette depicting the Sheldonian Theatre appears on the title-page in a nice example; the “Catalogue of Fishes Mention'd in Oppian” is present; a list of subscribers, with a fair representation of the Oxford colleges, is appended.

•  ESTC T139002; Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, I, 217; not in Dibdin. On Oppian, see: Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 395.   Recent quarter calf over marbled paper; spine gilt with a red leather title label. A brittle copy and some pages and gatherings now pulled loose. A little soiling in some top margins, and a few occasions of spotting. A few spots of very shallow chipping. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library, including one on title-page. All edges speckled red.  (3011)

Early Bilingual Edition of theSibylline Oracles with Their “Portraits”

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•  Fame?  Misfortune?  Wealth?  Life?  Death?  The Sibylline Oracles knew all, but understanding their pronouncements was not always easy. The efforts of scholar Onofrio Panvinio (1529–68), translator Sebastien Castellion (1515–63), and editor Johannes Opsopäus (1556–96) are brought together here and are supplemented bytwelve finely engraved portraits of “the oracles” by Karel van Mallery (1571–ca. 1635).

The pronouncements are here in the original Greek, with Latin translation (including sidenotes) on the facing page. These are enhanced by Panvinio's study of the Oracles, extensive elogia (testimonies by the ancient authors Plato, Ovid, Aristoteles . . . ), and Mallery's engravings of the sibyls, all preceding the actual printing of the prophecies with notes and supplemental material by Opsopäus.

The volume begins with a most handsome emblematic engraved title-page signed C. De Mallery involving a ship at sea against a sky labeled “Lutetia” (for Paris) surmounting an elaborate architectural frame containing the title and incorporating elegant symbolic ladies and more, followed on the next leaves by a dedication to the esteemed French collector Jacques-Auguste de Thou (Thuanus, 1553–1617). Beautiful floriated woodcut initials, factotum initials, head- and tailpieces decorate the text, which is anexquisite example of printing.

It seems that there were related texts printed at the same time that are sometimes found bound with this in a variety of combinations, but this not universally.

•  Adams S1061; Schweiger, I, 287.   Period-style full dark brown mottled calf tooled in blind, gilt title and tools to spine, red edges. Small hole from natural flaw in upper corner of title-page and one other leaf; oval-shaped spot in lower margin of title-page from an erasure (?), offset onto the front fly-leaf; light age-toning and occasional foxing in some margins, with a few stray ink marks from printing and maybe two or three dots from oxidization of the paper. Accounting for these minor expectable flaws, the present volume isreally very, very nice and the portraits areterrific.  (30177)

Poëmata Embellished withLovely Engravings

•  Sole edition of these neo-Latin poems, written by the brother of noted classical scholar Jacques Philippe d'Orville. The volume is illustrated with a mythic-themed, copper-engraved added title-page and head- and tailpiece vignettes done by A. vander Laan. All the engravings are gorgeous, and some extend almost to a half page in size. The main title-page is printed in black and red.

Most of the poetry here is “occasional” — there are several epithalamia as well as elegies and odes honoring various “noble youths” and such figures as Pieter Burmann, Hadrian Reland, and the author's brother Jacque Philippe. Some works celebrate (and are in the styles of) the great ancient Latin poets; at least one, and the longest, is explicitly (Christian) religious; two are in Greek.

Uncommon.  OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only four U.S. holdings.

•  Brunet 13064.   Contemporary vellum, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled central lozenge, spine with hand-inked title; front cover slightly warped, binding dust-soiled. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped. Scattered spots of light to moderate foxing. Errata (final page) lined through in ink.  (24490)

Ovid's “Art of Love” in GERMAN — Limited Edition with Slevogt's Embellishments

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•  Attractive edition of the Ars Amatoria translated into German by Ernst Hohenemser. The title-page and the charming, individual, and in a few cases mildly erotic head- and tail-pieces were lithographed by Max Slevogt, a notable member of the Berlin Secession. Publisher Cassirer was an art dealer and editor who actively promoted and supported artists of the Secession and the French Impressionist School.

This is numbered copy 201 of 320 printed, of the eighteenth work to come from Cassirer's Pan-Presse. The Lehrbuch is not widely institutionally held in the U.S.; WorldCat findsonly three American locations.

•  Publisher's half cream pigskin and light grey/tan cloth, rich eggplant endpapers, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette and spine with gilt-stamped title; bottom edge and corners rubbed or frayed with attendant soiling, front cover with area of faint staining. Interior clean and bright.  (28154)

Dulac Illustrations

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•  Pater's retelling of the tale from Apuleius's Golden Ass, printed in the Trajanus type designed by Warren Chappell and here set by hand, illustrated with Edmund Dulac's watercolors, in a binding done by Frank Fortney. The appropriate “Sandglass” Heritage Club newsletter is laid in.

•  Publisher's red buckram, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, in publisher's metallic paper–covered slipcase; volume clean and fresh, slipcase showing shelfwear. An attractive copy.  (29938)

“A Thoroughly Enjoyable Romp & Delightful to Engrave!”

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•  Uncommon: 15 boisterously naughty wood engravings by Hilary Paynter, interspersed with brief snippets of text from the ribald classic (in John P. Sullivan's English translation). Paynter, the chairman of the Society of Wood Engravers, was inspired by the fragmented nature of the text, and says that “some of the prints reflect this fragmentation: this reconstruction and repetition . . . there appears to be continuity but you cannot even be sure if the same persons are involved let alone who is doing what and to whom,” (pp. 5/6).

The work was printed at theRampant Lions Press for the Primrose Academy (a.k.a. Primrose Hill Press) on Zerkall mould-made paper, and bound by the Fine Bindery, Wellingborough. This is numbered copy 49 of 135 printed, signed at the colophon by the artist.

•  Publisher's mulberry paper–covered boards with black cloth shelfback, covers with pictorial title stamped in black; spine with gilt-stamped title. In original matching slipcase, the whole clean and crisp. A beautiful copy of this scarce work.  (30582)

Satyricon, with Loads of Commentary

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•  One of the most famous satires of all time, here in the expanded revision of Pieter Burman’s edition, with the much-debated corrections by Johann Jacob Reiske — with which the editor’s son, Caspar Burman, was most displeased. Brunet calls the 1743 edition “beaucoup plus complète que la précédente [of 1709], et celle qu'on recherche le plus;” Dibdin confirms that this second edition is preferred by collectors and “the curious” over the first. The neoclassical frontispiece was engraved by J.C. Philips.

•  Brunet, IV, 575; Dibdin, II, 276–77; Schweiger, II, 725. 19th-century quarter sheep in imitation of morocco, with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles; spines, edges, and extremities rubbed, vol. I with spot of discoloration to spine. Main title-page with shadows of pencilled numerals. Pages clean.

One of the Most Famous Satires ofALLTIME

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•  Petronius Arbiter (†A.D. 65) was a consul and court official under Nero. Noted for his sybaritic life-style, he committed suicide after being falsely implicated in a plot against the Emperor. His Satyricon, which exists only in fragments (books 14–16) and describes the amoral adventures of two youths in the Greek cities of southern Italy, incorporates a series of amorous adventures and misfortunes that make it a classic of erotic literature, but it is also a humorous critique of the immorality, vulgarity, and corruption of Roman society by one who knew that side of things all too well.

The present example is the fourth edition of this English translation done by Thomas Brown and others, with much matter added to the Satyricon: a life of Petronius Arbiter by Charles de Saint-Évremond, English translations of a number of poems by additional Roman poets (mostly rather earthy, vigorous works), a piece by William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, inspired by the Archbishop of Cambray's Telemachus, and a verse-form essay on poetry by John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham. The volume is illustrated with11 copper-engraved plates by various hands, which accompany non-erotic portions of the text and depict a wedding, the siege of Troy, a shipwreck, the Ephesian matron removing her husband's corpse, the death of the holy goose, etc.

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf panelled with plain calf, framed in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped red morocco title-label.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of John Thomas Ambrose (1798–1881), a philanthropist and solicitor in Mistley and Manningtree.

•  ESTC T17788; Lowndes 1843; Schweiger, II, 727.   Binding as above, rubbed and spine leather cracked; joints strengthened, portion of headband replaced, extremities subtly refurbished with toned long-fiber tissue. Bookplate as above. Varying degrees of age-toning, with a few signatures (only) browned or foxed and some leaves showing sometime exposure to water with no plates affected; additional engraved title-page lacking and index pages bound in incorrectly, interspersed with two poems towards the back of the volume!(29672)

Coveted Editio Romana ofPindar's Epinician Odes

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•  The Editio Romana of Pindar’s famous praises of victorious Panhellenic athletes, beingthe first edition of the text with the scholia and the first Greek book printed at Rome. Three of the four odes are considered more accurate in this edition than in the Aldine editio princeps (1513, based on a different family of manuscripts).

This was printed by the talented Greek expatriate Zacharias Kallierges, who had earned his reputation as one of the best printers of Greek at Venice in the incunable period, at the palace press of Sienese banker Agostino Chigi (1466–1520), whose financial ties to the papacy made him the wealthiest manolv in Rome and a prominent patron of the arts. In this great endeavor — there is evidence the edition comprised approximately 1,000 copies, existing in multiple permutations since part of the text wasreset, probably twice! (see Fogelmark) — he was assisted by his sometime partner and backer Cornelius Benignus, a humanist and Chigi's secretary. The nicely laid out title-page bearsthe devices of both Benignus and Kallierges, whose mark appears again on the verso of the final leaf.

Save just one instance of Latin, the “Impressi” printed in roman on the title-page, the entire volume is in Greek elegantly printed in black with some red, including on one leaf several capitals floating in the margin just outside the justified text. A few large floriated initials — two red, introducing the Olympia and the Pythia — and a handful of interesting small ornaments decorate the headings of major sections. The copious scholia, also printed in Greek, engulf the text, typically filling at least seventy-five percent of each page with notes on the subject, syntax, and even scansion of Pindar's poetry.

Chigi's good friend the Pope granted the right to print this work exclusively to Kallierges for five years.

Provenance:  Willm. Markham (his bookplate, front pastedown, covering another); Ed. Jameson (inscription above title).

Marks of readership: A partially legible early ink scrawl in Italian below the title and a one-line note faded to illegibility on another leaf; one missigned leaf corrected in manuscript; sparse underlining and annotations in brown and red ink; and, on eight leaves ruled for notes bound in at end, entries (one or several) in an early hand to most columns.

•  Adams P1221; Brunet, IV, 658; Dibdin, II, 286 (“scarcer and dearer than the preceding [edition]”); Graesse, V, 293–94; Sandys, II, 80 & [107]; Schweiger, I, 234; S. Fogelmark, “The 1515 Kallierges Pindar: A First Report” in [Greek title]. Studies in Honour of Jan Fredrik Kindstrand. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Graeca Upsaliensia 21, VIII, pp. 37–48, and his forthcoming monograph.   18th-century brown calf, covers bordered with gilt triple fillets and an interior roll alternating a flower and a dotted arch; marbled endpapers and all edges red. Board extremities bumped/scuffed and volume rebacked with gilt morocco spine labels (original leather discolored where laid over the new material); hinges (inside) subtly repaired with similar marbled paper. Intermittent foxing and generally light old waterstaining, the latter chiefly to lower margins or across corners but occasionally ranging upwards or across text; fore-edges of ff. 231 affected, with final leaf significantly stained and extensively repaired/reinforced without loss to text or to printer's device on the verso. A masterpiece of Renaissance printing, on thick paper.  (29671)

Pindar ON THE OLYMPICSin English

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•  First edition: Pindar's famous tributes to the classical Panhellenic festivals, of which at the time of this work's appearance “not one fourth . . . have ever appeared in English” (according to the title-page). The Rev. Francis Lee, chaplain in ordinary to the Prince of Wales, here takes on the avowedly challenging task of rendering the entire body of the victory odes into English; his efforts are accompanied by West's dissertation on the history and nature of the Olympic Games, first published in 1749, and West's previous translations of some of the odes. The volume opens with an engraving of a classical bust of the poet,and is additionally illustrated with a plan of Olympia in Elis, both from drawings by Lee himself.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Edward Everett, renowned American statesman and orator, Governor of Massachusetts (1836–39), President of Harvard University (1846–49), and Secretary of State under Millard Fillmore.

•  Lowndes 1869; NSTC L976; Schweiger, I, 238. Not in Dibdin.   Mid-20th-century half brown morocco and light green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, compartments with gilt-stamped floral and foliate decorations; spine gently sunned, extremities slightly rubbed. Top edge gilt. Front pastedown with bookplate as above, front free endpaper with inked inscription of Douglas F. Bauer, dated 1970. Front hinge (inside) unobtrusively reinforced with long-fiber tissue. Text with scattered light foxing, frontispiece and map affected more heavily; a few other spots only. Handsome and interesting.  (29763)

Beautiful Edition ofPindar's Epinician Odes
PYTHIA with Annotation

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•  Early edition of Pindar's famed epinician odes in tribute to the classical Panhellenic festivals: Olympia, Pythia, Isthmia, and Nemea. The printing was modeled on Brubach's (Frankfurt, 1542), which was copied from the coveted Kallierges Pindar (1515) and enriched with variations from the editio princeps printed by Aldus (1513, based on a different family of manuscripts). William Morel (d. 1564) was the King's printer for Greek from 1548 until his death, and probably edited as well as printed this highly regarded edition. Entirely in Greek (save for the transliterated title, a poem on the title-page verso, and the “Nemea” title and headline), this text is printed with avery wide outer margin, without marginalia or notes; however bibliographers have posited that the significant gap in pagination (our copy, like Brunet's, jumps from p. 258 to p. 547 with just a single blank leaf in between!), but not in the signatures' sequence, was intended to leave space for commentary never printed. A few woodcut initials and headpieces decorate the text.

Provenance:  Ex–Harvard library, with bookplate on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page and first leaf of text, and two stamps in ink on title verso.

Evidence of readership: Much interlinear writing and marginalia in a Latin secretary hand on26 pages of “Pythia” and note on final verso.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locateonly five U.S. libraries reporting ownership.

•  Adams P-1225; Brunet, IV, 658 (“Belle édition”); Dibdin, II, 287 (“A beautiful and excellent edition”); Graesse, V, 294 (“Jolie”); Schweiger, I, 235 (“Schön”).   Original flexible vellum, soiled, renewed stitching visible along spine; restored endbands, chips on front cover repaired. Front fly-leaf repaired at edges with tissue. Age-toning throughout, especially to page-edges, with some dust-soiling; very mild foxing on a few leaves; waterstain in lower half of three leaves only. Tiny tear in outer margin of one leaf, and small hole from natural flaw in another. Early annotation as noted; annotator's ink smudged on two pages. A very interesting copy of a fine printing.  (30494)

FirstEnglish-Printed Edition of Pindar's Works — “Beautiful & Celebrated”

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•  First edition printed in England of Pindar's famed epinician odes praising athletes victorious in Panhellenic contests and other illustrious men, being a handsomeOxford folio offering parallel columns of Greek and Latin with paraphrasis, notes, and extensive scholia often occupying half a page below. Editors Richard West (1671–1716) and Robert Welsted (1671–1735), both fellows at Magdalen College, combined the text and Latin translation of Erasmus Schmid (Wittenberg, 1616), commentary by Jean Benoit (Saumur ed., 1620) and Sudorium (Nicolas Le Sueur, ca. 1545–94), andthe text of five manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, with an argumentum opening each ode (accented by a handful of large block initials), a Life of Pindar following the preface, and intriguing dedications and obits for the Bourbons appearing at the back before the errata.

The quoted matter in our caption is from Dibdin, who further says, “The editors of this magnificent work have taken infinite pains to bring together every thing which could illustrate and improve the reading of the poet; and . . . their edition will long remain a splendid monument of classical research and typographical beauty.”

The frontispiece and title-page here producea “spread” of Oxford’s most pompously engaging sort, the former bearing an engraved portrait of Pindar flanked by Mercury and Apollo with a winged herald bouncing by on a cloud overhead, signed M. Burghers, and the title-page featuring one of the largest and most elaborate of the press’s self-referring allegorical vignettes, a helmed Minerva surrounded by her insignia with an extensive architectural panorama of the city behind her, signed MB

Provenance:  Douglas F. Bauer (his signature, Easter 1968, on the front flyleaf, and gilt initials on the lower spine); early ink owner's mark above the imprimatur on f. [a]2v.

•  Brunet, IV, 659; Dibdin, II, 289; ESTC R20960; Graesse, V, 295; Schweiger, I, 236; Wing (rev. ed.) P2245; Brüggemann, A View of the English Editions, I, 78–79.   Modern brown cloth over boards with a gilt leather title piece and gilt lower spine (as above). Moderate foxing, age-toning, and/or soiling, variously; later quires and indices notably browned, a couple of corners torn away and one tiny interlinear hole, a very short and slim track of minor wormwork in one section, and a few natural paper flaws. A substantial, satisfying volume.  (29710)

Portable Pindar from the Glasgow Editions of the Greek Classics

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•  One of Foulis's Editiones minimae, this being a dainty miniature printing of selected odes from Pindar's famous tributes to the classical Panhellenic festivals: Olympia, Pythia, Isthmia, and Nemea.

Provenance:  Each front fly-leaf with early inked inscription of Henry Moore, Worcester College, Oxford; front pastedowns with bookplate of H.M., presumably also Moore.

Binding:  Publisher's mottled crimson calf, covers framed in gilt beaded roll, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations, board edges with gilt roll.

•  ESTC T134377; Brunet, IV, 660; Dibden, II, 290; Gaskell 274; Schweiger, I, 236.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather darkened and showing small cracks. Vol. I with occasional instances of early inked marginalia in Greek. Vol. II with paper flaw to one leaf that has torn slightly, affecting about three letters. Pages gently age-toned with a very few scattered light spots, otherwise clean. A nicely printed text in a pleasing small format.  (30208)

LEC Plato:  “Love, Friendship, & Hiccups”

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•  The three dialogues that form the present volume — the “Lysis,” the “Symposium,” and the “Phaedrus” — constitute nearly all of Plato's ideas on the subject of love and friendship, and are here translated from the Greek by Benjamin Jowett. The introductory materials consist of a preface by Whitney J. Oates and three prefatory analyses (one preceding each dialogue) by Jowett, who also contributed brief running summaries of the text, which are printed in the margins.

Eugene Karlin (who signed the colophon) created thedelicate fine-pen illustrations; of these, 20 are full-page and 9 are in-text. The drawings of lovers engaged in the act of lovemaking are both tasteful and erotic; they are mostly heterosexual, with one — non-explicit — depicting two men). Robert L. Dothard designed the edition, which is limited to 1500 copies (of which this is numbered copy 1002), using a monotype Emerson font; the binding is quarter goatskin vellum with the title stamped in gold on a brown skiver label, and the sides are Swedish tan paper with a gold-stamped design on the front. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 409.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and slipcase; wrapper with lower corners chipped, slipcase with minor rubbing to gilt spine label, vellum spine with a few tiny brown spots (possibly as issued — the club newsletter for this volume says “Goats are real individuals, and that goes for their skins too; connoisseurs in such matters prize the mottled and stained appearance, which the skins come by quite naturally”). The whole generally clean and unworn; pages fresh and crisp. A beautiful copy.  (30460)

FIRST English Translation ofPlato's Complete Works

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•  First edition of Plato's complete works in English, partially translated by Floyer Sydenham (1710–87), revised and completed by Thomas Taylor (1758–1835), who published the impressive five-volume set at the expense of Charles Howard, Duke of Norfolk, dedicating the work to him. This isthe set that informed the Romantics of Platonism.  In America, Taylor's translation was studied by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists, including Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who through it probablyintroduced Emily Dickinson to Platonism.

Elegantly printed with wide margins, this is dotted with references to the original works in Greek, which Taylor studied with the aid of ancient commentaries; thorough footnotes clarify foggy passages and explain editorial decisions, often referring to ancient sources. A helpful “Explanation of Certain Platonic Terms” (in English, next to the original Greek) follows the general introduction in vol. I, before the translated Life of Plato by Olympiodorus.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns with one of the 19th-century bookplates of the German Society in Philadelphia.

Evidence of readership: On two pages in vol. IV, ink annotations supply the original Greek and correct the translation.

•  Schweiger, I, 250; Lowndes 1877; Brunet, IV, 698; Graesse, V, 322–23; On Taylor, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent period-style quarter speckled calf over red marbled boards, spines gilt-ruled and with gilt title and volume numbers on red and black morocco labels; place and date gilt-stamped collector-style at spine bases, red speckled edges. Early library markings in ink on front fly-leaves. Offsetting from original binding to endpapers in all volumes and in vol. I from plate onto contents. All volumes with occasional thumbsoiling, sparse mild mildew stains, a few tiny spots from chemical reactions in the paper affecting a handful of words, and occasional ink smudges; there are a natural flaw or two, a couple of marginal tears, light dust stains, and faint browning. Despite its handful of typical blemishes, this five-volume set is handsome and magisterial.  (30052)

Hackius Edition of aClassic of Roman History

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•  Pliny the Younger's letters, much admired for their detailed descriptions of Rome in the first century A.D., here with extensive annotations by Isaac Casaubon, Henri Estienne, Joannes Fredericus Gronovius, et al. This is an attractive Hack edition, with a copper-engraved frontispiece done by G. Wingendorp, and numerous headpieces and decorative capitals.

Provenance:  Title-page and two others with early inked inscriptions of the library of the Jesuit Casa Profesa of Mexico City.

•  Brunet, IV, 722; Graesse, V, 347–48; Schweiger, II, 809.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, slightly yapp edges, spine with contemporary hand-inked title; spotted and darkened, upper extremities rubbed, spine head with small unobtrusive paper adhesion. Title-page and two others with inscriptions as above. A few leaves with small edge nicks; some faint to moderate foxing and staining.  (29081)

Cameo Binding — Plutarch editio princeps — H. Estienne Imprint

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•  Eighth volume only of Quae extant opera, theeditio princeps  of Plutarch's complete works consisting of four parts in thirteen volumes (“Complete sets . . . are extremely uncommon, and one often sees the various parts being offered for sale separately,” Schreiber, p. 156). The present tome contains Latin translations of Plutarch's Moralia by Erasmus, Budé, Pirckheimer, Xylander, and Henri Estienne, inter alios, translated from the original Greek texts (vols. I–VI in the series) edited by Estienne. Printed by Estienne in Latin and Greek in roman and italic, it bears decorative headpieces and six-line floriated initials, a couple of factotum initials, and one letterpress diagram; letters and numbers are printed as sidenotes for paragraph reference.

Binding:  Contemporary alum-tawed blind-embossed pigskin over bevelled boards, spine in four compartments separated by raised bands with early ink title written in the uppermost. Front board's center panel with embossed cameo portrait of John Frederick, Duke August of Saxony (r. 1553–86), standing with sword in elegant armor against a classical background identified below by two lines in German (“Augustus, by God’s Grace Duke of Saxony and Elector”); this is enclosed by a series of interlocking frames, one being a roll of diamonds filled with foliage. Rear board with same surrounding three helmets above a shield containing the Duke's elaborate arms, in eleven quarterings; volume with two spiral metal clasps and all edges red. Binding signed with the binder's initials “MR” on either side of the Duke's head on front cover and date 1583 blind-stamped and painted in black below.

Provenance:  Stamp of the Bibliothek der Fürsten- und Landesschule zu Grimma.

Evidence of readership: Sparse underlining in light early ink (pp. 137–51) and stray pencil marks.

•  De Bure 6079; Dibdin, II, 336 (“the most portable and convenient [edition]”); Hoffmann, III, 171; Moeckli 77; Renouard, 134, 2 (“supérieure aux [éditions] précédentes”); Schreiber, Estiennes, 179; Schweiger, I, 258 (“Erste u. schöne”); and Sandys, p. [105], who with Dibdin gives Paris as the printing place. On cameo bindings and for a similar example, see: C.J.H. Davenport, Cameo book-stamps, pp. 18–21.   Pigskin of rear board with natural flaw patched at time of binding, foliate roll pattern not interrupted across this, extremities rubbed, spine worn, scattered stains. Clasps fully intact. Top edge of some leaves at beginning and especially at end waterstained and lightly deteriorated; small marginal inkblots to a handful of leaves and one narrow, light in-text smear. Old institutional stamp as above and a neat shelf mark to title-page. Clean, interesting copy.  (29514)

Prize Binding, withthe Certificate

•  Originally published in 1659, Pomey’s work on classical mythology was extremely popular and was reprinted many times during the following 150 years. This edition describes itself as “editio decima, denuò recensita, à quamplurimis erroribus repurgata, & aeneis figuris ornata.” The work begins with an elaborate engraved title-page signed “G. Schoute, fecit,” followed by a printed title–page in black and red. The text is printed in roman type with side- and shouldernotes and is illustrated with 27 plates, four of which are folding. The text is edited by Samuel Pitiscus (1637–1727).

Binding: Full vellum over paste boards, covers with bead and vine borders in gilt at outer edges and large gilt-stamped supralibros coat of arms of the Dutch town of Kampen, with the text “Pallas Minerva sospitatrix urbium.” Round spine with gilt rope-design roll forming spine compartments. Red leather author and title label.

Provenance: With the printed and folding ex-proemium of J.J.S. van Goltstein van Hoekenburg, Jan. 1819.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 976. Binding as above. All edges marbled. A very good copy; text block very slightly skewed in binding.

Sophocles Adapted

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•  Illustrated withfive woodcuts from the original cherry blocks by Inger Lawrance, this poem based on the Theban play by Sophocles is here set forth in copy 46 of an Old School Press limited edition of 112, which has beensigned by the author and the artist below the colophon. Set in Perpetua from Stephenson Blake and printed on heavy Zerkall paper, the edition was bound by Rachel James in quarter bright yellow fine-grain cloth with the title gilt-stamped not on the spine but along the line of the its cloth on the handmade rose-colored Larroque paper covering the boards; black Canson Mi-Teintes was used for the endpapers. Copies 101–12 were reserved for binders in sheets.

•  Binding as above. Pristine in a mylar wrapper.  (30562)

WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries

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•  Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology, a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru, America, Africa, India, Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities. The foundation of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la Fable; copious additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the famed poet, scholar, and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist). The resulting encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27 under the title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato, according to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.

This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”

The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.

Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.

•  Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin.   Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation.  (25862)

ANOTHER Dutch Prize . . .

•  First edition: Pieter Burmann the younger’s edition of Propertius, based primarily on Brouckhusius’s text and — after Burmann’s death — edited and completed by Laurentius Santen with commentary on the final elegy. Graesse points out some flaws in the text and exposition, but says that “les notes de Burmann sont de nouvelles preuves de son érudition,” and Dibdin agrees that the commentary is “a treasure of critical and philological learning.”

Binding/Provenance: Prize binding of contemporary vellum, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt central vignette with the crest of the city of Amsterdam, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. The partially printed, partially inscribed, bound-in prize certificate reads “Ingenuo magnaeque spei adolescenti, Henrico Gerteler propter insignes in artibus humanioribus progessus, in classe tertia . . . Quod testor R. v. Ommeren [/] Gymnasii publici Amstelaedamensis Rector,” dated 1791.

•  Brunet, IV, 905; Dibdin, I, 385–86; Graesse, V, 460; Sandys, II, 455; Schweiger, II, 831. Binding as above, vellum slightly darkened, lacking ties; spine with gilt dimmed and traces of a now-absent label and inked call number at foot of spine. Lower edges with institutional rubber-stamp; title-page with shadow of a pencilled numeral. Front free endpaper with paper adhesions from a now-absent bookplate; back pastedown with rubber-stamp and small adhesion. Pages clean save for offsetting to upper margins of a few, from a laid-in slip.

TO Part VI

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