VIRGILIUS MARO, Publius.
Opera. Vol. I.
London, John Pine, 1755 [= actually some years later]. 8vo. With 2 different vignettes on the otherwise identical engraved title pages, an engraved frontispiece with a figure of the muse Euterpe, 2 engraved dedication leaves with vignettes, 1 folding and 49 full-page engraved plates on 39 leaves (11 of the leaves with a plate on each side), 31 engraved half-page plates and historiated head- and tailpieces, engraved historiated and decorated initials. Some of the images are derived from the illustrations in the Codex Vaticanus, a 5th-century codex containing the works of Virgil. Late-19th-century gold-tooled crushed red morocco, bound by the famous partnership of René Chambolle (1834-1898) and Hippolyte Duru (1803-1898) (with their names gold-stamped in the bottom front turn-in). The boards show a double fillet frame with detailed, ornate flowers and vines along the inside of the frame, with the author, title, and imprint lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt top edge, marbled endpapers. The binding can be dated between 1861 and ca. 1870, the heyday of the Chambolle-Duru partnership representing the high level of the Golden Age of French bibliophile binding. [8], XV, [2], 144, [6] pp.
€ 3,500
Original edition of the first volume of the works of Virgil containing the Bucolica (Eclogues) and Georgica, as edited and illustrated by John Pine (1690-1756). The second volume never appeared. Pine was an English engraver, print-seller and publisher with a shop on St. Martins Lane in London. He was a close friend of William Hogarth who painted Pine several times. In 1733-1737, Pine printed an edition of Horace in 2 volumes, considered a masterpiece of 18th-century book art. The text, as well as the illustrations, for the two volumes was entirely engraved by Pine. His achievements were recognised in 1743, when he was appointed Engraver of His Majestys Signet and Seals, and subsequently Bluemantle Pursuivant-at-arms in the Heralds College.
In 1755 (actually several years later after Johns death, edited by his son Robert, see: the dedications) he published this first volume of Virgils works, but now with the printed (instead of engraved) text. The full-page engraved plates were listed on the last 5 pages describing them in short, calling for 10 more plates than present in our copy. It is uncertain, however, whether they are missing. Descriptions of other copies call for different numbers stating that some plates were never printed. Also, the second edition (re-issue) by Pines son Robert Edge Pine (1730-1788) in 1774 calls for the same number of plates as in our copy.
Slightly browned. Otherwise in very good condition. Dibdin II 561; DNB 45, p. 312; Schweiger II 1176.
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