"A VERY SPLENDID AND MAGNIFICENT EDITION": 1749 ENGLISH EDITION OF HORACE'S WORKS

(HORACE) FRANCIS, Philip, translator. A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace, With the Original Text, and Critical Notes collected from his best Latin and French Commentators. London: A. Millar, 1749. Two volumes. Quarto, contemporary full speckled calf, gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, red and green morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers and edges. $1200.

First quarto and best edition of Francis' translation of Horace, finely printed, with two engraved frontispiece portraits and engraved plate by Hayman. An attractive copy in contemporary calf-gilt.

Francis' renowned English translation, "particularly of the odes, is highly Horatian: it is moral without dullness, gay and spirited with propriety, and tender without whining. Hence few translations have gone through more editions, or met with greater applause from the public" (Brueggemann, 598.). This edition prints the Latin originals on the verso of each leaf with English translation facing, and extensive annotations. First published in 1742 in four octavo volumes, this is the fourth edition overall, and the first to be issued in large (quarto) format, and the specific edition praised by Lowndes as "a splendid edition" and by Brueggemann as "a very splendid and magnificent edition, very elegantly printed with the Latin text." Publisher's advertisements at the end of each volume. Brueggemann, 598. Lowndes, 1117.

Text generally clean, with minor offsetting. Old repairs to tender joints, bit of rubbing to spine ends and corners, faint dampstain to outer edge of boards. An appealing copy of this splendid edition in contemporary calf-gilt in very good condition.