Home / Browse / Illustrated / C. Julii Caesaris quae extant. Accuratissimè cum libris editis & MSS optimis collata, recognita & correcta.
CAESAR, Julius.
C. Julii Caesaris quae extant. Accuratissimè cum libris editis & MSS optimis collata, recognita & correcta.
Accesserunt annotationes Samuelis Clarke. S.T.P. Item indices locorum, rerumque & verborum utilissimae. Tabulis aeneis ornata.
First edition, deluxe issue on large and thick paper, of Samuel Clarke's Caesar, justly regarded as one of the finest examples of eighteenth-century English publishing: "The most sumptuous classical work which this country has produced" (Lowndes). As a scholarly edition, it was highly praised by Addison in the Spectator (no. 367), while the classical scholar and bibliographer Edward Harwood declared it the best edition in his Biographica Classica, 1778. "Although his Caesar achieved elegance mainly through profuse ornament, the typography, nonetheless, has qualities of stateliness and dignity which set the book far above the usual product of the time and place" (Great Books). Its engraved images of ancient British warriors, with elaborately painted bodies, and of Druidical priests and cultic practices like the giant Wicker Man, have entered the popular imagination and have been influential in shaping a distinctly British sense of historical identity. The book is notable for the impressive double-page image of the bison (described in book 6 of De bello gallico) which is liable to be removed as a decorative plate.
Royal folio (488 × 326 mm). Contemporary panelled calf, neatly rebacked and recornered. Double-page engraved title dated 1712 (ESTC notes the existence of copies in which the engraved title is dated 1710, but this is considered as a variant rather than indicative of a distinct state), 2 engraved portraits (one of John Duke of Marlborough by Vertue after Kneller), 6 maps (one hand-coloured in outline), 78 plates and plans, 55 of them double-page or folding, by Huyberts and others (all these sequentially numbered 1 to 87); numerous engraved initials and vignettes to text. Engraved armorial bookplate of William, Lord Cowper (1665–1723), politician and lord chancellor, to front pastedown; modern leather book label. A very good copy.
