Bionos kai Moschou ta leipsana [printed in Greek characters]. Illustrabat et emendabat Gilbertus Wakefield
- Hardcover
- London: T. Bensley, 1795
London: T. Bensley, 1795. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. Scarce. This edition is printed in Greek and Latin. Bion ( onos) was an ancient Greek bucolic poet from Smyrna, probably active at the end of the second or beginning of the first century BC. He is named in the Suda as one of three canonical bucolic poets alongside Theocritus and Moschus. One long poem about Adonis and seventeen shorter fragments of his poetry survive. Moschus (Moschou) was an ancient Greek bucolic poet and student of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace. He was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC. Aside from his poetry, he was known for his grammatical work, nothing of which survives. Theocritus (early third century BCE), born in Syracuse and also active on Cos and at Alexandria, was the inventor of the bucolic genre. Like his contemporary Callimachus, Theocritus was a learned poet who followed the aesthetic, developed a generation earlier by Philitas of Cos (LCL 508), of refashioning traditional literary forms in original ways through tightly organized and highly polished work on a small scale (thus the traditional generic title Idylls: “little forms”)[Wikipedia].
The editor, George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), was a writer on Greek classical architecture and a future British Prime Minister. The book was described as: "A beautiful and correct edition, by the late Gilbert Wakefield, and printed with great care and delicacy by Bensley, but without accents, for which omission it has been much censured, and for which reason it never sold. The work is commended by foreign critics." [Thomas Frognall Dibdin] Bound in red leather with a faded spine with rubbing to gilt titling. Bumping and soiling to covers. All edges gilt. Red dentelles with gilt ornament design. Hinges are slightly cracked but text block is firm. Browning and spotting to front and particularly the rear endpapers with darker browning along margins of hinges. Tear to front free endpaper.Text pages are generally clean with light aging to margins. Very good condition. Measures 6.5 x 9.5 inches. Pages: (8) + 33 + (82). POE/072123.
The editor, George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), was a writer on Greek classical architecture and a future British Prime Minister. The book was described as: "A beautiful and correct edition, by the late Gilbert Wakefield, and printed with great care and delicacy by Bensley, but without accents, for which omission it has been much censured, and for which reason it never sold. The work is commended by foreign critics." [Thomas Frognall Dibdin] Bound in red leather with a faded spine with rubbing to gilt titling. Bumping and soiling to covers. All edges gilt. Red dentelles with gilt ornament design. Hinges are slightly cracked but text block is firm. Browning and spotting to front and particularly the rear endpapers with darker browning along margins of hinges. Tear to front free endpaper.Text pages are generally clean with light aging to margins. Very good condition. Measures 6.5 x 9.5 inches. Pages: (8) + 33 + (82). POE/072123.