Crusius Eberhard Lewis (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. London: Printed for the Author, 1726-32. First edition. Quarto, two volumes: [8], liii, 431, [7] p. + [4], 404, 35, [10] p. Period calf bindings, with a red leather spine label and five raised bands. Minor dampstain to the bottom corner of both volumes. Early previous owner's ink signature to each title page. Period bookplate to each front pastedown, alongside the modern bookplate of Paul Naiditch, longtime Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles. Though the hinges and joints are cracked or starting, the bindings are sound. Unobtrusive evidence of nonarchival repair to the joints of the first volume. The spines are darkened, with some spotting to the front board of the first volume. The boards are edgeworn and showing in places. Crusius (1701-75) was an Anglican clergyman and classical scholar. His sole work was The Lives of the Roman Poets, which he supplemented with an introductory essay on the origin of poetry. The work went through three editions by 1753 and was translated into German (1777, 1778). Designed for "the Improvement of Youth and the Entertainment of others", Crusius's writing is polite and self-consciously Augustan in style. He admires the civilizing effect of Horace's satire during "the crisis of Roman greatness" above all else. …