Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis.

Argentorati [Strasbourg]: Typis Philippi Jacobi Dannbach, 1789. 4to, pp. [iv], 430, [2]. Contemporary sheep, spine dyed black and tooled in gilt to ends. Some scattered toning and foxing. Somewhat scratched and rubbed, corners sometime repaired, spine ends worn, free endpapers excised. Ownership inscriptions to flyleaf: ‘E Libris Caroli Friderici Molbech’ and ‘Jonannes Sofit [?] Februar 1940’, one marginal Latin note in pencil. A scarce edition of Virgil, printed in close imitation of Baskerville’s famous 1757 edition: on laid paper, with a type that closely resembles Baskerville’s, and laid out in a similarly spare style (though plainer still, without decorative touches such as line numbers, italics, and drop capitals). The printer provides a preface in which he praises the famous beauty of Baskerville’s edition, but criticises its text and choice of emendations and readings. His response is to print this edition, combining as it were beauty and brains, by joining R.F.P. Brunck’s recently published text to a version of Baskerville’s mise en page. Library Hub locates only five copies, at Oxford, Cambridge (2 copies), BL, and Glasgow.