4to. 70 + 89 + 103 pp. + errata page. First Edition of Frere's sparkling translations of three of Aristophanes' eleven surviving plays. The book was printed on the government printing press in Malta where Frere had retired for the sake of his wife's health, and published in London the following year. 4to, in 3 parts. Printed on laid paper with a blueish tinge; pts. 2 and 3 have colophons reading "Malta: Printed at the Government Press 1839". Binding tight. Light scattered foxing, with most pages clean. Upper margin of final pages have dampstain not quite touching page number. Leath... View More...
12mo. 13 by 8.5 cm. [12], 286, [12] pp. 29 engraved plates, one for each chapter, plus engraved title page. Pages are overtrimmed on top. A few light ink scribbles on plate leaves. Modern full calf. View More...
8vo. cxii, 296 pp. With 23 engraved plates. (One for each Satyr, plus two frontises. One Satyr in second work is lacking a plate.) Spine is dry and darkened. Joint extremities are rubbed and a bit rough. Calf on boards remains fresh. Light scattered soiling, generally clean. One leaf, in dedication, cxi and verso, with a lot of ink spotting. Plate to Satyr 16 of Juvenile with center tear and small loss, not greatly detrimental to image. View More...
4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 191 pp. First French edition of study of sculptural heritage of Ancient Rome. Profuse use of photographs, including many in color. Both a serious overview and an attractive coffee table book. View More...
70 numbered leaves, 140 pp. Small 4to, 7.75 by 6 inches, 19.5 by 15 cm. With 78 woodcuts of philosophers, writers and other figures whose biographies are here rendered as well as a few more allegorical subjects. Also in addition a few printer's devices and/or other woodcut ornaments. This is a translation of Laertius, a third century Greek biographer of philosphers of the Ancient World. The charm of this copy most definitely resides in the illustrations. Vellum boards splayed and with film of soilage. Skiver spine label worn and rubbed. Blank leaves, preliminary and at rear, with chi... View More...
No. 12 of 20. With a folio of three original ink drawings signed by Vertes, a folio of 10 engravings that were rejected for use in the book proper, and a suite of all the engravings used in the book. This copy is also inscribed by the artist to the collector/owner, which is not something called for in the limitation. 204 pp. Stylistically, the Hungarian-American Vertes brought a loose, near-abstraction sensibility to what nonetheless remained lucidly representational art. He executed his images with a spare economy while keeping his lines fluid and flowing. At times his output could loo... View More...
48mo - over 3 - 4" tall. 171 pp miniature book, measuring 7 by 5 cm or 3 by 2 inches. N.d., circa 1890. Welch 4714. Tiniest of ink-like blot spot in upper corner, with infinitesimal crease also on some pages. Gilt foreedges. Generally clean and tight. Small cameo illustration of cleric on title. View More...
330, [6] pp. 12mo, with copper engraved title page by Giovanni Van Den Avele. Pharsalia is considered a masterpiece, and possibly the masterpiece, of the Silver Age of Ancient Roman poetry. The epic poem concerns the Roman Civil War at the time of Caesar and most particularly the extended struggle between Caesar and Pompey the Great. Lucanus, writing a century later, during the reign of Nero, far from glamorizing the warfare, took a jaundiced view of the fraticidal battle, and his portrait of both Caesar and Pompey was far from flattering. His "epic poem", therefore, is epic in ... View More...
12mo. 16 by 10 cm. [16], 485, [11], [4], 530, [18] pp. With fourteen copper engraved plates, seven of which are folding, based on the illustrations by Dutch Baroque master Romeyn van der Hooghe. Brunet III 1211. Lucian of Samosata (125 - 180 A.D.) was an Assyrian satirist who wrote exclusively in Greek. Herein are contained, in French, his best-known works: "L'Histoire Veritable", "Dialogues des Morts", "Dialogues des Dieux". Clean and tight. Light wear to the binding. View More...
12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. [11], 462, [4] pp. 227 illustrations, including frontis, which was designed by Charles Le Brun. There is an exquisite pictorial image, 2.5 by 3 inches (with one exception) to each generally 15 line verse recounting concisely one of the Metamorphoses immortal tales and/or character trasnformations. Verse is on facing pages and caption below illustration describes the scene of the picture in prose. This is a Dutch reprint of 1676 Metamorphoses published by Isaac Benserade in Paris, Imprimerie Royale. Brunet IV 288. This particular copy appears to have minor e... View More...
4to. (27 by 21 cm, 10.5 by 8 inches.) 199, [1] pp., plus 48 copper engraved plates, including three that are folding and are more than double the size of the standard plates in their width. The plates, depicting scenes of Roman history, are full of gore, drama, action. They are rendered in the historical style that might be associated with the Baroque but was still certainly going strong in the ambitious canvasses of the early nineteenth century. The half morocco is rubbed along the joints and dry and scuffed elsewhere. The marbled boards are scuffed and have typical edgewear. The leave... View More...
8vo, 9.5 by 6 inches. 246, [2], 276 pp. With 12 engravings, including ones by Bartolozzi and Jos. Fittler. Attractive crisp printing. Occasional light foxing, but mostly clean. Minor edgewear chips to frontis plate now stabilized by discreet tape. Rebacked with green morocco that closely matches contemporary green morocco on boards. Lush moire silk endpapers. Some fading and wear to boards which still exude warmth and elegance. Tight overall. View More...
This is Wilder's first novel after his string of big hits, and instant classics, on Broadway. Like the plays, though, Wilder is venturesome in approach, here embracing the hoary form of the epistolatory novel but applying it in a highly original manner. As the title might suggest, this novel is a retellng of the story of Julius Caesar, his times and the society he occupied and dominated. Wilder might not be strongly associated with historical fiction, but he was in fact a devoted classicist, and this foray into historical fiction found a receptive audience -- the novel sold extremely well u... View More...
8vo. 20, 568 pp. With fifteen woodcut plates, with frontis, one for each canto of the Aenied, and one for the Bucolica and Georgica respectively. Some soiling throughout. All leaves of the Bucolica and a few of the Georgica have severe wormholing in the lower corner with only trivial touching of text. A few other leaves have corners overtrimmed or with loss. Still, an uncommon edition, with only three copies located on OCLC. View More...
Large paper presentation copy of this Byzantine history by a hold-out pagan who often took a jaundiced view of the policies, practices and actions of the Christian rulers. As stated on the title page, this is the first published version in Italian, and that in itself is significant as scholarship was emerging from the clerical yoke which had stifled it in so many ways following the Counter-Reformation on the Italian peninsula. [iv], 316 pp. 6 full page engravings; folding map of Armenia, Media, etc. -- the area between the Black and Caspian Seas. 4to, about 30 by 21 cm, or 11 by 8 inches. ... View More...
No text, with fifteen color lithographed plates of a softcore sensibility, with nudity. The only words in the story proper is the title rendered in Cyrillic. The illustrations are far from lewd, yet do have a delicious kitschy quality of the second-rate book illustration, and they were in their time meant to give the viewer a frisson of excitement from partaking of something mildly naughty and taboo. The illustrations feel anachronistic, fitting more squarely in the twentieth century than the classical world being portrayed, but perhaps that is also their charm. No one could find the illustr... View More...
No. 162 of 200, with one of 150 on hand-made paper of Wiggins, Teape & Co. 240 copies in all were made, including unnumbered copies (212 were numbered in one of two ways). 4to. (27 by 20 cm.) 282, [5] pp. The outstanding aspects of this edition and copy in which Ovid's verse is rendered in both Latin and German translation are magnificent decorative pigskin binding, the flowing type, and the elegant page decoration, which includes a huge variety of cameo images. These images are never repeated exactly, it should also be noted. Resulting is a book of extraordinary beauty, both exterior an... View More...
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