Saint-Lambert's copy
HORACE. Quintus Horatius Flaccus. Birmingham: John Baskerville. 1762.
12mo. Contemporary French marbled sheep, boards with gilt double-fillet border, spine gilt with raised bands, red morocco lettering piece (renewed), edges gilt, marbled endpapers, blue silk place marker; pp. [6], 300, [4], engraved frontispiece and title vignette by Charles Grignion (1717-1810) after designs by S. Wale, engraved coat of arms of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute at head of dedication letter, ff. X2-5 misbound; neatly rebacked, spine ends and extremities worn, boards slightly scuffed; variable spotting, offsetting and toning, as often, but generally very good; contemporary ownership signature of “St. Lambert” in ink to title page, 19th century ink inscription “appartenait à St. Lambert” (see below); housed in a custom-made box.
First Baskerville edition of Horace, with the rare errata leaf and publisher’s advertisement, and a fine provenance.
John Baskerville (1707-1775) was an innovative type designer and printer, whose elegant work was highly regarded by Benjamin Franklin. The Baskerville typeface, a transitional serif, was designed as a refinement of earlier old-style typefaces such as Caslon.
This edition of Horace’s works, including his Carmina (Odes), Sermones (Satires) and Epistulae (Epistles), was edited by John Livie, who dedicated the volume to John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. Livie later edited Baskerville’s 1766 edition of Virgil.
Provenance: From the library of Jean François de Saint-Lambert (1716-1803), French poet, philosopher and military officer. He contributed to the Encyclopédie and was admitted to the Académie Française in 1770. Saint-Lambert was “the friend of all the philosophers and frequented all the salons; he was well-acquainted with mesdames Geoffrin, du Deffant, Houdetot, du Châtelet, de Lespinasse” (Académie Française, Les immortels, online, transl.).
Gaskell 23; ESTC T46242.
#2121406