The Classical Tradition

London: Bradbury, Evans & Co, 1852. 308 pages, pictorial title page and 10 hand-colored steel engraved plates by John Leech. 100 wood engraved illustrations in text. Bound in 19th-century half green calf over marbled boards. Marbled edges and endpapers. Binding rubbed away at edges and extremities. Child's pencil marks on rear blank. more information

Madrid: Imprenta de Lopez y Hermano, 1815. Small octavo (16 cm); [24], 352 pages. Woodcut vignette on title page and 62 woodcuts vignettes, many of them captioned with proverbs or "dichos," illustrating the fables. Bound in rustic contemporary vellum over boards, in Latin American style (laced to text block with headband cores), titled in ink on spine, worn, peeling at fore-edge of upper board; scorched (?) on lower board. Old sewing on spine. Title page loose. Damp stain in lower margin of first 20 leaves, affecting title page. Sewing is inexpert, yet holding. Charming, well-thumbed, American copy of the popular compilation of fables. more information

Paris: Barbou, 1769. 5th edition. Reference: Brunet II, 608. 12mo (16cm); xxxvi, 504 pages, and engraved allegorical frontispiece. Printer's device on title page. Woodcut and typographical ornaments. Original French marbled calf gilt, joints cracked and spine ends chipped. All edges gilt. Pages evenly toned, with unobtrusive damp mark in upper margin of frontispiece. The fine scholarship and pleasing design of Barbou Press editions are insufficiently appreciated. Although the title page states that this is the fifth Desbillons edition of Aesop, it is in fact the first Barbou printing. more information

London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, etc., 1791. 8vo (22 cm); [4], 270 pages. Bound in recent cloth. First appearance in English of the lively letters of Alciphron, the second-century Greek satirist. He presents the letters as if they were written by sailors, peasants, parasites and prostitutes, giving a vivid picture of popular culture in Athens. The letters from the prostitutes are especially interesting, not only for the clues they provide about the role of women in society, but for plots lifted from lost examples of New Attic Comedy (especially Menander). more information

New York: The Brooklyn Museum and the Viking Press, 1973. 27 cm; 231 pages, with numerous half tone and color illustrations. Sturdily hard-bound in later green buckram. Clean and unmarked. Catalog of an exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. more information

Torino: Editori L. Roux, 1890. edited by Giuseppe Mazzatinti, the gifted literary scholar from Gubbio. 23 cm; xiv, 431 pages. Bound in contemporary 1/4 polished calf over decorated paper-covered boards. Original wraps bound in. Very light scattered foxing. Few pencil marks in margins. Inscribed on front blank by Mazzatinti. more information

Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1973. Wraps. A little soiled, but VG. Text in German. more information

Philadelphia: University Museum, Univ of Pennsylvania, 1959. 29 cm; v, 93 pages, 45 plates, map in pocket. Original printed wraps, a bit discolored. more information

Philadelphia: University Museum, Univ of Pennsylvania, 1959, 1965. Two volumes bound together. 29 cm; v, 93 pages, 45 plates, map in pocket; ix, 170 pages, 69 plates. Sturdily bound in buckram cloth. Binding a bit blemished, but contents clean and bright. more information

New York: The Heritage Press, 1960. 4to ( 29 cm); 307 pages. Cloth spine with paper-covered boards. Very good in slip case (slip case slightly discolored at edges). Greek and English text on facing pages. more information

Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1889. 20cm; 6 volumes. Title pages printed in red and black. Portrait frontispiece. Bound in publisher's wraps. Untrimmed. Spines peeling. Some foxing on wraps. One quire held weakly in volume 1. Lively translation of Aretino's pornographic satire on high-minded Renaissance philosophies of love. Aretino bursts in on Plato's Symposium with discussions of a more familiar sort of love. more information

Paris: Société d'Edition "Les Belles Lettres, 1969. 21 cm; 101 pages. Plain printed wraps, unopened. Dusty, with light shelf wear. Upper wrap creased. Greek text with French translation and notes. more information

Portland: Thomas B. Mosher, 1900. 23 cm; 52 pages, [1] leaf. Printed in red and black, with elaborate wood-cut border on title page and extra wood cut title. One of 450 copies. Bound in later cloth. Bookplate of Canadian bibliophile Lawrence Lande. more information

London: J. Weale, 1842. First edition. 30cm; two volumes in one, continuously paginated. [vi], 122, [2] pages, and 57 plates, many printed in colors. Two polychrome title pages. Bound in modern 1/4 tan morocco over cloth, with original gilt decorations mounted. Contents sound, with occasional light scattered foxing. Fore edge of final leaf frayed. Francis Arundale (1807-53) and Joseph Bonomi (1796-1878) traveled together for several years in Egypt and the Levant. Bonomi possessed a " remarkable skill in hieroglyphic draughtsmanship" (DNB) while Arundale specialized in architectural drawing. The present volume represents an attempt to encourage enthusiasm for the museum's Egyptian collection, including the Rosetta Stone. more information

Lyon: J. A. Huguetan & M. A. Ravaud, 1657, 1664. Folio (36cm); two volumes in one; I: [48], 812, [48] pages; II: [8] pages, 998 columns (i.e., 499 pages), [39] pages (without last blank leaf). Title pages printed in red and black. Engraved and woodcut title page vignettes. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Greek text and Latin translation in parallel columns. Bound in speckled calf, ruled in blind, with blind-tooled turn-ins. Leather label on spine hand-tooled in gilt with floral border. Worn, joints cracked but holding, spine worn at crown and tail with some loss, lower board scuffed with some leather lost at corner. Annotations in early hand on blanks. Light scattered foxing at first and last leaves. One bifolium loose (apparently left unsewn in manufacture). References: Hoffmann I, 396 & 398; Schweiger, Greek, 70; Simon, Bibl. Gastronomica, 145. This compendious, encyclopedic work by the Greek-speaking Egyptian Athenaeus (fl. 200) portrays a Roman dinner party attended by the brightest, deepest and most learned thinkers of the early Third Century. The banquet lasts several days in order to allow conversation to take its course. Topics range lightly over law, medicine and literature, but the real subject at hand is food in all its aspects. In a sense, it is the oldest extant text on cooking. The Deipnosophistae ("Scholars at Dinner") is an important source of information on the gastronomic customs of the ancient world. It also quotes fragments of ancient literature which have otherwise been lost. The eminent Huguenot humanist Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) established the definitive text of Deipnosophistae in 1597, when it was first printed alongside the Latin translation of Jacques Dalechamps. Casaubon's commentary on the work appeared several years later, and was frequently bound together with the bilingual text. The copy offered here is the third and last edition of Casaubon's text and commentary before it was absorbed into Johann Schweighauser's edition of 1801. more information

London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893. Reference: Bentley & Nurmi, 294; Wade 218. 29 cm; three volumes. Three frontispieces and many illustrations and lithographed facsimiles, mostly in volume III. Folding charts. Large paper copy, bound in half morocco over leather-covered boards, stamped in gilt on spine with a figure adapted from the frontispiece of Blake's Songs of Experience. Binding rather worn at extremities, yet sound and entire. Some foxing at first and last leaves of each volume. A very early Yeats work, only his second published book (according to Wade). An ambitious project which incidentally became a triumph of book production, it includes a long biography and critical appreciation by Yeats and Ellis, as well as a lithographed reproductions of the "prophetic books." The large-paper edition, offered here, is printed on better paper than the more common octavo, and is the collectible edition of this book.  more information

Vicenza: Simon De Gabis Bevilaqua (Colophon: per Symonem de Gabis Papiesem), 20 December 1487. References: HC 3316; GW 4476; Goff B-752.. Folio (32 cm); [8], 200 leaves. Type 1:88R, 53 lines per page. 7-line initial spaces with guide letters (initials occasionally supplied in pen by contemporary or later reader). Text in 2 columns. Bound in 18th-century (?) 1/2 mottled calf over patterned paper boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt tooling and gilt title label. Titled in ink on fore edge. Occasional notation in early hand; occasional spots and occasional light foxing. Few leaves browned in latter part of text. Free endleaves consist of original manuscript on vellum, 9th or 10th century, in a remarkably clear and readable Carolingian miniscule hand. The text on the endleaves is from the Homilies of Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt (d. 853). Boccaccio's encyclopedia of classical mythology, to which he devoted the last third of his life, opened the way for the European Humanist endeavor that flourished for two centuries after. Medieval scholasticism discouraged study of pre-Christian literature on the grounds that there could be no truth prior to Christ. In this hostile climate, Boccaccio produced a serious, comprehensive account of classical mythology, and at the same time he defended his studies against the charge of irrelevance. The last two chapters of the Genealogies of the Gods are devoted to this defense, arguing that poetry (including the entire realm of myth) is noble, demanding, and rooted in divine inspiration. It veils a central truth at its core. This defense of literary scholarship provided the theoretical framework for studia humanitatis, the study and interpretation of poetry which gave Humanism its name. Considered Boccaccio's most important work into the Age of Enlightenment, the Genealogies of the Gentile Gods was copied, read, printed and cited more frequently than the Decameron during that time. This edition, the second in the parade of printings, was the first book printed by Simon Bevilaqua, and the only book in which he allowed his family name, De Gabis, to appear. Simone Gabi (1450-1518) deliberately kept his origins in shadow. We know nothing of him before the publication of this edition of Boccaccio's Genealogies of the Gentile Deities. In all subsequent work (in Vicenza, Venice, Torino, and ultimately Lyon) he signed his name "Bevilaqua," a nickname he wore ironically because of the copious amounts of wine he consumed. In addition to Boccaccio's encyclopedia, the text also includes his gazetteer of classical geography, "De Montibus, Sylvis, Fontibus, Lacubus, Fluminibus, Stagnis, seu Paludibus, De Nominibus Maris." more information

Vatican City: Tipografia poliglotta Vaticano, 1951. First edition. Cloth. 34cm; viii, 170, [1] pages and 89 plates in photogravure. Title page printed in red and black. Cloth unevenly sun-bleached more information

London: Heron Books, 1966. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1983. First Edition. Cloth. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1977. First Edition. Cloth. more information

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948. 24cm; x, [2], 436 pages, frontispiece (group portrait, map. Inscribed to DeForest and Cornelia Grant. Dust jacket frayed at crown and reinforced with cello-tape. Inscribed by the author more information

New York: Praeger, 1971. 25 cm; 275 pages. Illustrated. Cloth in dust jacket, G/G, with light pale dampstain in lower right margin of text. more information

London: Whiting, 1885. First edition. 26cm; 134 pages and 1 plate. Text in hieroglyphic characters, transliteration and English translation. Includes glossary of hieroglyphs. Bound in cloth decorated with Egyptian figures in gilt. Light to moderate foxing, especially on plate and title page. Early owner's stamp on title page; another ownership mark rubbed out. One corner bumped. Front joint split two inches at top. Ibrahim Hilmy, I, 103: "The black marble sarcophagus of this queen was found at Thebes.... It forms one of the most remarkable monuments of the XXVI Dynasty. The text--reproduced in hieroglyphic type--contains the prayers of the queen to the gods, and their responses. It supplies variants of some of the chapters of the Ritual, or Book of the Dead, and many of the passages point to originals in the 'Pyramid Texts' published by M. Maspero. A literal translation and transliteration are given, with a general introduction and a running translation, also a list of the words contained in the text. more information

London: Printed by order of the Trustees, sold at the British Museum, 1894-1895. Second edition of facsimile, first edition of translation. Facsimile volume: 54cm; vii pages and 37 double-page chromolithograph plates. Bound in recent half-calf over buckram; Text volume: 33cm; clv, 377, [1] pages. Hieroglyphic type with interlinear transliteration and translation. Plate volume with gift inscription to Century Club; text volume with Century Club bookplate (apparently deaccessioned). Text volume rubbed at extremities. E.A. Wallis Budge acquired the Papyrus of Ani for the British Museum in 1888. Intended as a guide to the afterlife, the scroll was full of its culture's most beautiful prayers and incantations, and was exquisitely decorated. Budge immediately sliced the scroll into 37 pieces and mounted the sections for exposition at the British Museum, where they began to deteriorate under the light. At the same time he commissioned a full-size, full-color facsimile, first published in 1890 and again in 1894, in luxurious elephant folio sheets but without translation or analysis. In 1895 he issued the text volume, intended to illuminate the second edition of the facsimile with "interlinear transliteration and word for word translation, a full description of the vignettes, and a running translation; and in the Introduction an attempt has been made to illustrate from native Egyptian sources the religious views of the wonderful people who more than five thousand years ago proclaimed the resurrection of a spiritual body and the immortality of the soul." Extra shipping charges apply.

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[Copenhagen]: The National Museum of Denmark, 1974. Pictorial Boards, slipcase. Richly illustrated account of the museum's Near Eastern Civilizations collection. Text in English, with summary in Danish. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1982. First Edition. Cloth. more information

New York: Pantheon Books, 1949. Cloth. A sound reading copy, a bit dusty and rubbed at spine ends. Tiny abrasion in cloth on spine. more information

London: Travel Book Club, 1959. Cloth. Dust jacket a little sunned. more information

Paris: Ambroise & Jérôme Drouart, 1605. First edition. References: Brunet I 1613-1614; Hoffmann II, 84; Tchermerzine III, 398 (Florent). Octavo (18cm); two parts in one volume: [16] 356 [4] (last two pages blank); 38 [2 blank] pages. Roman, italic and Greek types. Engraved illustration in text of Bacchus and Silenus among satyrs. Woodcut initials, woodcut and typographic ornaments. Bound in contemporary (?) vellum with yapp fore-edges. Early owner's inscription on title page (Henrik ter Borch); presentation inscription dated at Cambridge, 13 March 1930, on front free endpaper from "HFS" to Gilbert S. Inglefield, later Lord Mayor of London. Engraved advertisement on front pastedown for Ward & Chandler, Booksellers, circa 1740. Some dampstaining, particularly at the end of the volume. A small red stain on the lower board. Casaubon's innovative work on classical satire, which demonstrated that Greek satyr plays and Roman satire were two entirely distinct literary genres (thereby ending a confusion that had prevailed since the 4th century). The first specialized monograph on satire, the work grew out of Casaubon's commentary on Persius published earlier the same year. In appendix to De Satyrica, Casaubon published a translation by Florent Chrestien of Euripides's satyr play Cyclops, the only preserved specimen of the Greek satyric genre. Chrestien was a student of Henri Estienne and librarian to Henry IV. Online scans of the Yale copy of De Satyrica failed to include the Euripides. more information

Paris: Apud Marcum Orry, 1600. 18cm; 2 volumes. [4], 1-360 leaves, 361-370, [42] pages; [2], 367-825, [9] leaves. Printer's device on title pages. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in contemporary vellum over boards. Reference: Adams C-867. Indexed edition of the Late-Antique Christian rhetorician by Jean-Baptiste Duval. more information

London: Collins, [1943?] . Cloth. 112 pages, and 11 color plates. 64 illustrations in text. Gift inscription dated Christmas, 1943. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1981. First Edition. Cloth. more information

Paris: Editions du Carrefour, 31 December 1929 (Colophon). First edition. 19 cm; 252 pages, [1] leaf. Bound in original wraps, plain variation (that is, without the vignette that appears on most copies). Edition limited to 2500 copies on Alfa Mousse Navarre, this copy not numbered. INSCRIBED BY DE CHIRICO on front blank "A Monsieur Rudder, hommage de..." Published in the "Collection Bifur" series. Original glue fails to completely hold the wraps to the text block. Some very light toning at edges of preliminary leaves. De Chirico's seminal novel in its first edition, with a gift inscription from the author. The text is regarded as a monument of surrealistic prose, successfully translating the visual and emotional landscape of De Chirico's paintings into narrative form. John Ashbery calls the book "the finest work of Surrealist fiction," noting that de Chirico "invented for the occasion a new style and a new kind of novel… his language, like his painting, is invisible: a transparent but dense medium containing objects that are more real than reality. more information

London: for W.J. and J. Richardson, etc., 1807. 8vo (21 cm); vi, 441, 4 pages. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, gilt ruled, spine with fine gilt and blind tooling. Marbled edges and endpapers. Some wear, with upper joint slightly cracked, but a very good, clean copy. William Melmoth's translation. Adam Clarke wrote, "The remarks discover learning with taste and the translation is executed in a masterly manner. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1984. First Edition. Cloth. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1987. First Edition. Cloth. more information

London: Published for the British academy by the Egypt Exploration Society, 1980. First Edition. Cloth. more information

Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1992. Cloth. Facsimile of the London, 1940 edition. more information

New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1965. First edition?. 29 cm; 110 pages, illustrated. Bound in original cloth, no dust jacket (as issued). Covers scuffed and marked a bit, contents clean and very good. Copyright line inked out by hand on copyright page. more information

Paris: Chez l'Auteur, 1776. First edition. Quarto (26 cm); xxxi, 632 pages, frontispiece and VIII plates, some folding. Bound in later 19th-century full sheep, leather title labels on spine. Spine end chipped at heel, but the binding is otherwise sound, entire, and relatively unblemished. Contents evenly toned, title page a shade darker, with light foxing present. Several old bookseller tickets on front pastedown, the most recent from Il Polifilo, Milan. Pencil notes (in English) on rear pastedown. Volume 4 only ( of 9) of the monumental Monde primitif series, begun in 1771 and completed in 1782. This volume is a study of chronology and time measurement in ancient cultures. more information

London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901. First edition. 32 cm; xii, 46, [2] pages, and 35 plates, including photogravure frontispiece. Bound in original printed boards, browned at edges, bumped at corners, but minimally worn. Contents clean. Archaeological Survey of Egypt., 10th memoir. more information

London: Egypt Exploration Fund, etc.; Oxford University Press, 1903-05; 1973. Reprint. 31 cm; complete in six volumes. Numerous plates, many folding. Bound in 1/4 cloth over printed paper-covered boards. Oxford University Press reprints manufactured in 1973, in fine condition. First published under the auspices of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt, edited by F. Ll. Griffith. Part 1: The Tomb of Meryra; part 2: The tombs of Panehesy and Meryra II; part 3: The tombs of Huya and Ahmes; part 4: The tombs of Penthu, Mahu and others; part 5: Smaller tombs and boundary stelae; part 6: Tombs of Parennefer, Tutu and Ay. Extra shipping charges apply. more information

London and Boston: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902. First edition. 2 vols., 32 cm; vii, 43 pages and 27 plates; viii, 51 pages and 30 plates. Frontispieces in both volumes lithographed in color. Some plates folding. Bound in original printed boards. INSCRIBED BY DAVIES in both volumes. Boards somewhat worn. Volume I: Tomb of Aba and Smaller Tombs of the Southern Group. Volume II: Tomb of Zau and Tombs of the Northern Group. With appendices by W.E. Crum and G.A. Boulenger. more information

London: British Museum, 1984. 30 cm; vi, 37 pages, and 23 pages of plates. Bound in library cloth, stamped in gilt. Original wraps bound in. Minor soiling on upper wrap only. British Museum Occasional Papers # 36 more information

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987. Cloth. Slight wear to edges of jacket, small spot (whiteout?) on bottom board. more information

Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970. 26cm; 188 pages. Illustrated. Bound in wraps, in very good condition but for bottom wrap, which is creased. more information

Boston: Beacon Press, 1947. Cloth. Bookplate (?) removed from rear blanks. more information

London: Richard Sare, 1700. Second edition. Reference: Wing, E3154. Octavo (20 cm); [16], xli, [7], 432, [8] pages. Bound in contemporary full paneled calf, worn and rebacked early on. Joints cracked but holding. Front blank loose. Few marginal notes in pencil. Includes a life of Epictetus by Boileau. more information

Philadelphia: Frederick W. Greenough, 1839. 24 cm; 753 pages. Wood-engraved plates. Bound in recent full leather veneer in 19th-century style. Raised bands. Pages toned, with foxing present at beginning and end. The third edition, translated from the German by N. W. Fiske. more information