Classics - Authors from Antiquity

New edition, one of 20 hors commerce copies printed on pur fil laid paper and issued in special grey Ingres wrappers, reserved for the 20 private subscribers to all of Paul Valéry's works.

Spine and covers very slightly yellowed, with no serious effect; internally in pleasing condition.

Precious signed presentation inscription from Paul Valéry to his friend, the bookseller, publisher and bibliophile Ronald Davis: "Exemplaire de Ronald Davis qui a déjà tant d'écriture de moi que ce n'est pas la peine d'en remplir encore cette belle page !  Paul Valéry."

New quarto edition, revised and corrected by the author, with numerous decorated headpieces, initials and tailpieces.

Full brown calf, spine in six compartments with five raised bands richly gilt-tooled, red morocco lettering-piece, triple blind fillet border to boards, double gilt fillet to board edges, red edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Light scratches and scuffing to boards, corners slightly bumped, otherwise a very...

Illustrated edition with compositions by Arthur Rackham, 13 in colour tipped in with captioned tissue guards, and 52 black-and-white illustrations in the text, one of 55 copies on japon, signed by Arthur Rackham on the limitation page, deluxe issue.

Publisher’s full vellum binding, flat spine gilt-lettered with gilt-stamped animals, upper cover gilt-stamped with the title and an illustration of animals, top edge gilt, uncut, lower cover silk ties preserved.

A fine copy...

New edition from the rare Ottoman presses in 1888. Printed in the calligraphy of Mustafa Nazif Efendi. 77 engravings, including 4 full-page, with numerous half-page ornaments and headpieces.

Contemporary Ottoman binding (buffalo or gazelle) in full leather with reddish-brown flap. Flat spine, renewed in the 20th century. Boards elaborately decorated with large framing panels of scrolls and flowers. Central medallion. Part of the upper board restored. Flap with small losses at headcaps and rubbing. Flap uniformly darkened to brown. Endpapers renewed. Paper in perfect condition.

New edition printed in 55 copies only (see publisher's foreword).

Only one copy of this edition listed in the CCF (BnF).

Contemporary temporary binding in full cherry paper boards, flat spine without lettering, minor rubbing to the binding.

Foxing, restorations to the head and tail of the spine, lower corners worn, a dampstain to the lower outer corner of the final leaves.

The text of Horace is in Latin only.

This rare folio edition was preceded in 1815 and 1818 by two small-format printings intended for student use.

The aim was to bring together in a single small volume the two principal sources of taste in versification, as upheld by classical...

First edition of the bilingual Greek-Latin text of Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras by Ludolf Küster from the manuscript held at the Laurentian Library. The facing Latin translation is the work of Frédéric Ulrich Obrecht and Konrad Rittershausen. Bound at the end is Porphyry’s Life of Pythagoras.

Illustrated with a large frontispiece portrait of Pythagoras, based on a coin from the collection of Fulvio Orsini.

Contemporary Dutch gilt-panelled vellum boards, spine with 5 raised bands and gilt ornaments with the arms of the city of Amsterdam, large gilt arms of the city of Amsterdam...

First edition, illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece by Cazes engraved by Tardieu, a title vignette by Humblot repeated, and four repeated headpieces by the same artist, as well as a folding map of ancient Greece and a plate of medals. Title pages printed in red and black.
Contemporary full mottled and polished calf. Spine richly gilt in compartments. Red morocco title label, volume label in gilt-decorated brown calf. Losses to the headcaps of volumes I and III. Splits to the upper joints of volume I. In volume I, from pages 190 to 370, two small wormholes affect the upper margin; from page 371 onwards, these gradually develop into short tunnels, extending 1.5 cm along the upper...

The rare first edition, illustrated with 100 in-text figures of medals, each showing obverse and reverse. Of the three parts that were to appear successively, only this one was published, Le Menestrier's death having put an end to this work. The work was not even put on sale; the author only distributed a few copies around him. It is therefore very rare to come across this edition. The 1642 edition entitled Medales illustrées des anciens Empereurs et Impératrices de Rome is the same work to which the publisher Paillot added the Médailles des impératrices from a manuscript he had purchased from the heirs. Jean-Baptiste Le Menestrier, antiquarian, should not be confused with the heraldist...

New edition of this ancient pastoral romance, illustrated with a frontispiece and eight full-page engravings. With several headpieces, decorated initials and tailpieces.

Dark yellow morocco, spine with five raised bands, author, title and date lettered in gilt, gilt fillets to board edges and headcaps, gilt inner dentelle, all edges gilt; tan morocco case by Riviere & Son, spine with five raised bands, author, title and date lettered in gilt, blind-tooled fillets. Raised bands lightly rubbed, with a few scuffs to the slipcase, otherwise a handsome copy.

Mortimer L. Schiff's guilt red morocco bookplate on the front pastedown.

Second edition, published the year after the first. Text in Greek and Latin.

Illustrated with the printer's device on the title page, headpieces, initials, and tailpieces.

Superb contemporary red morocco binding, spine with five raised bands bearing Colbert's crowned cipher, centre of both covers stamped with his arms, boards framed three times in gilt, gilt roll-tooling on the board edges, all edges speckled, spine very lightly sunned, discreet rubbing to the corners, board edges and spine-ends on one abrasion to the lower cover and a faint dark mark on one compartment of the spine.

A sumptuous copy bound in morocco stamped with the arms and cipher of...

New edition of Jacques Amyot's French translation, illustrated with charming engravings, one of 50 copies printed on vellum paper.

Contemporary blue half morocco over marbled boards, smooth spine richly tooled in gilt within decorative compartments, gilt date at foot, gilt fillet border to the boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, top edge gilt, an attractive unsigned binding.

This edition was revised and expanded by Paul-Louis Courier.

Illustrated first edition, lacking the frontispiece portrait of Hippocrates, but complete with its five plates, fine decorative initials and large tailpieces.

Contemporary full tree calf, smooth spine richly gilt with, among other decorations, a palmette roll, tan morocco lettering piece, gilt roll on board edges. Ink ownership inscription on the front pastedown: "J. E. Petrequin \ lyon, nov. 1856," in the hand of Joseph Pierre Eléonor Pétrequin, chief surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon, who received the...

First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on Japanese vellum, the deluxe issue.

Illustrated with 3 engravings and 1 map.

Brown half shagreen morocco binding with corner pieces; spine with five raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot; minor rubbing to the spine; marbled paper sides; marbled endpapers and pastedowns; original wrappers and spine preserved; corners slightly bumped; gilt top edge.

A pleasing copy.

Complete copy comprising two translations by Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt, whose works are commonly known as "belles infidèles" (beautiful but unfaithful translations). Between 1662 and 1795, no other translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War was published. The privilege granted to the bookseller Clousier in 1712 was shared among several booksellers, including Michel-Étienne David, Nicolas Gosselin, and Jean-Geoffroy Nyon.

Contemporary full brown calf, gilt spines with five raised bands and four compartments decorated with plain and dotted fillets enclosing fleuron tools, tan morocco lettering-pieces, numbering-pieces within gilt...

New edition of the French translation of this work, originally published in 1731 in two quarto volumes (see Brunet IV, 456).

This edition is illustrated with 8 folding plates, comprising 3 maps and 5 views.

Contemporary full marbled tan calf bindings, smooth spines richly decorated with gilt floral panels, bronze calf lettering- and volume-pieces, small wormholes to the spines, gilt rolls to the caps, single blind fillet framing the boards, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the board edges, red edges, bindings of the period.

Repairs to the joints, a few occasional spots of foxing.

The translator of this French version, written "en un style aisé, clair, même...

Second edition: the work had in fact already been published in 1741 at Halle under the more concise title Syriasmus.

Contemporary half vellum with vellum corners, the flat spine gilt ruled and decorated with gilt Greek-key rolls and floral tools, bronze sheep lettering-piece, a gilt cross stamped at the centre of the upper cover, sprinkled edges; corners a little rubbed. A binding of the period.

Numbering in blue ink at the head of the front endpaper.

The Lutheran theologian Christian Benedikt Michaelis (1680–1764) specialised in Oriental languages (Arabic, Geʽez, Syriac, etc.), as did many of his contemporaries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A...

First edition of the Marcello Virgilio translation in Latin, dedicated to Leo X. The princeps edition was based on an old translation by Petrus de Abano (ca. 1250-1316), and published in 1478 in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The original text was written in Greek around 60 AD.
Title page in red and black. 45 lines per page. Colophon : "Florentiæ per hæredes Philippi Iuntæ Florentini. Anno ab incarnatione Domini.1518. Idibus Octobris. Leone decimo Christiana[m] Rempub. gerente." Superb Filippo Giunta printer's mark on verso of last leaf. Bibliographical note in French opposite the title page.
Full modern limp vellum binding, all edges faintly bluish.
A lack of a small piece of paper...

New Deux-Ponts edition of the works of Statius.
Bound in slightly later Bradel-style boards, navy blue. Smooth spine with fillets. Red morocco title label. Rubbing to head and tail, edges and corners. Cut to foot of p. 25. Handsome copy.
Life of Statius by Giraldi. Index by Fabricius Ernestinus. Publius Papinius Statius was a Latin poet born in Naples in the 1st century AD; the 3 works that remain to us are the Silvae, the Thebaid and the Achilleid, which are 2 epic poems. His popularity led to his appearance in Dante's Divine Comedy.

New edition. Printer's device on title page. Colophon: Excudebat Robertus STephanus Parisiis, Ann. M. D. XXXIII. octavo cal. sept.
Full brown marbled sheep binding ca 1920, pastiche of a Renaissance binding, signed L. P. Thébaut. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 small fleurons. Central roundel on covers, and thick gilt frame. Tear with loss at foot. Black stain at head and foot. Corners rubbed. Some foxing. Joints slightly cracked. Good copy.
Collection of three texts by Roman writers: The illustrated lives by Pliny the Younger, which are short biographies of famous men (Pompey, Hannibal, Scipio...); Suetonius's book on grammarians and rhetoricians is the last part of...

New edition. Printed in italics. Title page within a Renaissance engraved border.
Full red morocco binding, 18th century. Spine with raised bands richly decorated with small tools. Dotted fillet border on covers with corner tools and small tools. Decorative gilt board-edges. Edges gilt. Rubbing to joints and corners. Handsome contemporary binding. Fine copy.
The Pharsalia or Civil Wars (between Pompey and Caesar) is the only preserved work by Lucan, an unfinished epic poem in ten cantos.