Opera (Odes, etc.)

Horace

Published by Jacob Tonson, 1699

Quinti Horatii Flaci Opera (Jacob Tonson, London, for the Cambridge University Press, 1699). 4to (295 x 230 mm). [2], 5, 479. Text in italics and Roman type. Full-page woodcut frontispiece, numerous woodcut head- and tail-pieces throughout, many protected by original tissue-guards. Full late-18th century red straight-grained morocco for Syston Park, unsigned but likely by Storr of Grantham. Spine divided by raised and gilt-ruled bands into five compartments; compartments elaborately tooled in gilt and gilt-lettered direct in second compartment and at foot of spine. Boards double ruled in gilt with decorative fleurons on inner compartment; edges of boards decorated in gilt with gilt ruled inner dentelles; all edges gilt; marbled endpapers. Occasional offsetting, minor rubbing to extremities. A beautiful and crisp copy of one of the finest Classical texts published by Tonson, from the Syston Park library. The 1699 Horace was prepared by James Talbot (1664 1708), chaplain and secretary to the Chancellor of the University and from 1699 Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. Talbot, along with Richard Benteley, was active in producing editions of Classical texts under the auspices of the Cambridge University Press following the lapse of the licensing act in 1695. Benteley's own Horace would be issued by the same press twelve years later. While Benteley's appetite for bold conjectural emendation has earned his Horace an almost cultish following, the Talbot-Tonson Horace remains one of the highlights of late 17th-early 18th British typography, available here in an equally magnificent binding. Seller Inventory # ABE-1670357317714

Bibliographic Details

Title: Opera (Odes, etc.)
Publisher: Jacob Tonson
Publication Date: 1699
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good