Easton Press "The Works of Virgil" Slipcased Deluxe Limited Edition No. 319 of 800

This deluxe limited edition is the facsimile re-creation of the remarkable 1697 Jacob Tonson London Edition. Featuring 101 vintage illustrations

NUMBER 319 OF ONLY 800 

Easton Press, Norwalk CT. 2024.  "The Works of Virgil". Slipcased Deluxe Limited Edition of only 800. This is number 319. The first illustrated edition of John Dryden's famous 1697 translation. A facsimile re-creation of the remarkable 1697 Jacob Tonson London Edition. Featuring 101 vintage illustrations. Dimensions: 8 1/2" x 13 1/2". 1,004 pages.

This edition is now OUT OF PRINT from the publisher, never to be offered again.

This over sized volume includes the Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneid of Virgil. Tonson illustrated the book with the sumptuous plates that had been done by Wenceslaus Hollar, whose harmonious landscapes and precise renderings are remarkable for their virtuosity and detail. 

Exclusive re-creation features

1. Presenting Virgil's three great works in John Dryden’s acclaimed translation, along with a wealth of breathtaking etchings from a late 17th-century master.
2. Translated from the Latin into English Verse by renowned English poet John Dryden (England's first Poet Laureate).
3. There are ten etchings in the Pastorals, twenty in the Georgics, and seventy-one in the Aeneid.
4. With sumptuous paper, an intricate and deeply inlaid cover design, beautifully marbled endsheets.
5. A clothbound slipcase with matching, textured design

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro (15 October 70 BC – 21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil (/ˈvɜːrdʒɪl/ VUR-jil) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. Some minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars regard these as spurious, with the possible exception of some short pieces.

Already acclaimed in his lifetime as a classic author, Virgil rapidly replaced Ennius and other earlier authors as a standard school text, and stood as the most popular Latin poet through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and early modernity, exerting major influence on Western literature. Geoffrey Chaucer assigned Virgil a uniquely prominent position in history in The House of Fame (1374–85), describing him as standing on a pilere / that was of tinned yren clere ("on a pillar that was of bright tin-plated iron"), and in the Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as the author's guide through Hell and Purgatory, Dante pays tribute to Virgil with the words tu se' solo colui da cu'io tolsi / lo bello stile che m'ha fatto onore (Inf. I.86–7) ("thou art alone the one from whom I took the beautiful style that has done honour to me"). In the 20th Century, T. S. Eliot famously began a lecture on the subject "What Is a Classic?" by asserting as self-evidently true that "whatever the definition we arrive at, it cannot be one which excludes Virgil – we may say confidently that it must be one which will expressly reckon with him."

Features

• Fully bound in genuine leather.
• 22kt gold deeply inlaid on the "hubbed" spine.
• Custom-crafted clothbound slipcase.
• Superbly printed on acid-neutral paper that lasts for generations.
• Sewn pages — not just glued like ordinary books.
• Printed end-pages and a satin-ribbon page marker.
• Printed and bound in the USA. Imported materials.
• Rigorous inspection at every stage ensures adherence to exacting standards.
• Superb craftsmanship and commitment to quality.
• Beautiful Illustrations
• Gilded Page Edges