Iliados... Odysseias... [in Greek].
Glasguae: excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis, 1756-8 Stock Code: 115338
"One of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to the world"
First edition of the Foulis Press Homer, described by Edward Harwood as "One of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to the world its accuracy is equal to its magnificence" (Harwood, 4-5). The text was carefully edited by the Glasgow professors James Moor and George Muirhead (Moor was Robert Foulis's brother-in-law) and the book was printed in a new fount of Greek type designed and cut by the Glasgow typefounder Alexander Wilson, the fount being noted for its beauty and regularity. The brothers jointly won the silver medal of the Select Society of Edinburgh for the best-printed and most correct Greek book. "As the eye is the organ of fancy, I read Homer with more pleasure in the Glasgow edition. Through that fine medium, the poet's sense appears more beautiful and transparent" (Gibbon, Miscellaneous Works).Description
Together 2 works, 4 volumes bound in 2, folio (315 x 200 mm). Contemporary or perhaps late 18th-century vellum over thick boards, dark green morocco labels, smooth spines, sides with outer frame formed with a twin fillet in red, spot-marbled endpapers, binder's blanks of laid paper with Pro Patria watermark in the "Maid of Dort" form, red-brown burnished edges, pink silk bookmarks.
Illustrations
Without the general title (issued in 1758), as usual.
Condition
Bookplate of St Andrew St John, 14th Baron St John of Bletso (1759-1817), to each pastedown. Vellum lightly marked, silk bookmarks detached and laid in with resulting thin tan-lines to one spread in each volume, a few minor marks internally, sig. 4f1 Odysseias with two small marginal paper flaws just touching a couple of letters on verso, overall a fine set.
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