HORATIUS FLACCUS, Quintus (Horace).

£1,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

A Metrical Version of the Odes, by E. H. Stanley. First and sole edition, finely bound by Zaehnsdorf and inscribed by the translator to his wife. Issued privately in a small print run, it is attractively printed by the notable printer-bibliographer, William Blades. Edmund Hill Stanley (1822-1913) was a financial agent, amateur classicist, and merchant's clerk who wrote the 1851 pamphlet What are Tribunals of Commerce? In 1856 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. The inscriptions read: "To my dear Wife - with much love E. H. Stanley July 6th, 1889"; and below, to his daughter, Katherine, "And to my dear Daughter Katey - with much love E. H. Stanley Dec[embe]r 27th 1905". There are several pencilled corrections to the text, presumably in Stanley's hand. This is a thoughtfully produced edition with simple but attractive presswork, the original Latin opening line printed above each translation.The printer William Blades (1824-1890) became an acclaimed authority on Caxton. His business specialized in security printing, that is such things as banknotes, cheques, and stock certificates, and Blades "was able to command the highest standards for the production of all his books" (ODNB).This edition is commercially and institutionally scarce, with just one copy traced in the UK, at the British Library, and nine in the United States.

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