Pindari Olympia, Nemea, Pythia, Isthmia. una cum Latina omnium versione carmine Lyrico per Nicolaum Sudorium [Ed. Richard West and Robert Welsted] (O

Description

Pindari Olympia, Nemea, Pythia, Isthmia. una cum Latina omnium versione carmine Lyrico per Nicolaum Sudorium [Ed. Richard West and Robert Welsted] (Oxford, at the Sheldonian Theatre, 1697). Folio (330 x 210 mm). [38], 497, [96], 77, [1]. Greek and Roman type. Full page engraved frontispiece and title page. Late 18th / early 19th century polished tan calf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, elaborately gilt. Compartments gilt-ruled into quadrants with gilt-stamped floral devices in centres and corners, bands densely gilt-tooled with geometric patterns. Gilt-lettered red morocco label in second compartment. Boards with intricate gilt-stamped border, board edges and inner dentelles tooled in gilt. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Armorial bookplate of Thomas de Grey, likely Thomas Philip de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, 3rd Baron Grantham. Front joint beginning to split at top and bottom, but boards still holding firm. Occasional browning and foxing to a handful of leaves. The edition presents the Greek text, paraphrase, interpretive notes, and scholia together on the same page, with an appendix containing the Latin translation of Nicholas Le Sueur, which had first been printed by Frederic Morell at Paris in 1582. The editors, Richard West and Robert Welsted, were both fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. An important and typographically sumptuous edition of Pindar—the first printed in England—in an exquisite binding.