Odysseias [The Odyssey] (Large paper copy)

Glasguae [Glasgow]: In Aedibus Academicis, Excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis, 1758. First thus. Near Fine. The rare large paper issue of the beautiful Foulis folio edition of the Odyssey. Near-contemporary diced russia rebacked with gilt spine. Two volumes, folio. Measuring 245 x 385 mm. [viii], 297; [iv], 336 pp. Bound without terminal blanks, otherwise complete. Pages ruled in red with half-titles and title-pages elaborately ruled in red and green. Corners somewhat rubbed. Some foxing to preliminaries in volume one, otherwise very clean and fresh throughout. A bright, Near Fine copy.

The Foulis folio editions of the Odyssey (1758) and (truncated) the Iliad (1756) are regarded as landmarks in Scottish printing and two of the finest editions of Homer ever produced. This large-paper issue, measuring about 5cm greater in both dimensions than the regular edition and printed on better-quality paper, is rare and particularly sumptuous (Gaskell, 319). The production was highly praised by Dibdin, both for its aesthetics and its accuracy, as "each sheet, before it was finally committed to the press, having been six times revised by various literary men" including Andrew Foulis, Professors James Moor and George Muirhead, and James Tweedie. The Foulis editions of the Odyssey and Iliad were both printed with specially-cut double pica type from the Edinburgh University type founder Andrew Wilson, resulting in a clear and readable text praised by Edward Gibbon, who wrote that he "read Homer with more pleasure in the Glasgow edition. Through that fine medium, the poet's sense seems more beautiful and transparent."

ESTC T90250. Gaskell, Bibliography of the Foulis Press, 319. Near Fine. (Inventory #: 7297)