Lot 165: Quintus Horatius Flaccius (68-8 BCE) OPERA 1733-37

HORATIUS Flaccius, Quintus (68-8 BCE). Opera. London: John Pine, 1733-1737. First edition, first issue of a ‘tour-de-force, with the entire text and all the illustrations engraved’ (Blumenthal, Art of the Printed Book). John Pine (1690-1756) drew on imagery of classical seals, paintings and sculpture for the over 324 illustrations and vignettes, and the work was to be found in the most noble libraries of the day, as the illustrious list of subscribers makes clear. Without the printed list of antiquities in one of the three Rothschild copies. Brunet III, 320: ‘remarquable par l'élégance des ornements’; Cohen-de Ricci 497; Lewine p. 246; Rothschild 1546-1547. 2 volumes, octavo (221 x 140mm). Engraved throughout, frontispieces, title vignettes, 8 full-page illustrations, culs-de-lampe, and 4-line opening initial to each poem. Contemporary red morocco gilt, sides with neo-classical rolls, classical urns in spine compartments, gilt turn-ins, gold-printed decorated endpapers, edges marbled and gilt (small spot on front cover of vol. II); modern folding box. (2)