MARC Record view

001 $ 04/3183
003 $ UK-LoRAA
005 $ 20220905172521.8
245 0 0 $a Compositions From The Works Days And Theogony Of Hesiod. Designed By John Flaxman, R.A. P.S. Engraved By William Blake.
246 1 # $a Theogony
246 1 # $a Works and Days
246 3 # $a Theogony Works & Days & Days Of Hesiod
260 # # $b Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, $a London, $c Jan. 1, 1817.
300 # # $a 37 pl. (incl. t.pl.); $c 365 mm.
500 # # $a The Academy's second copy is preceded by one leaf of letter-press reading 'The Theogony Works & Days & Days Of Hesiod Engraved From The Compositions Of John Flaxman R.A. Sculptor, London.'
508 # # $a No plate is signed.

Each carries the publishers' imprint of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, and the date.
510 0 # $a R.N. Essick, William Blake's commercial book illustrations (1991), no. LI; G.E. Bentley, Blake books (1977), no. 456.

G.E. Bentley, 'Blake's Hesiod', in The Library, 5th ser. 20 (1965), p.315-20; D. and E. Panofsky, Pandora's box (1965), p.92-105; G.E. Bentley, 'Blake's engravings and his friendship with Flaxman', in Studies in bibliography, 12 (1959), p.161-88.

On Flaxman's outline illustrations generally see the bibliographic note on Compositions From The Tragedies of Aeschylus Designed By Iohn Flaxman (1795).
520 # # $a The publication-date of 'Jan. 1. 1817' appears on the title-plate and plates 2, 12-21, 24, 28-37. The earlier publication-date of 'November 1. 1816' is carried by plates 3-11, 22, 23, 25-27.

(The Academy's second copy is preceded by a leaf of letter-press reading 'The Theogony Works & Days & Days Of Hesiod Engraved From The Compositions Of John Flaxman R.A. Sculptor, London'. As this has the appearance of a divisional title-page and the second copy is bound with Compositions From The Tragedies Of Aeschylus, Designed By Iohn Flaxman ... (London, 1831), perhaps this second copy is an 1831 reprint.)

Plates 1-4, 6-20 represent passages from Hesiod's Works and Days; plates 5, 21-37, passages from his Theogony. All are captioned with a quotation from Elton's English translation, and usually with a title also.

For the engravings Blake employs a stipple technique; which gives them a softer appearance on the page than the earlier engravings by Piroli of Flaxman's designs for Homer and Aeschylus.
561 # # $a [First copy:] Acquired between 1816 or 1817 and 1821. Recorded in RAA Library, Catalogue, 1821.

[Second copy:]
563 # # $a [First copy:] 20th-century half calf, grey cloth-covered boards; gilt-decorated spine, lettered, 'Flaxmans Hesiod' and 'R.A.'

[Second copy:] 19th-century marbled-papered boards, rebacked and recornered in calf in 1988; black morocco spine-label lettered 'Compositions From The Tragedies Of Aeschylus', spine lettered '1831'. [Bound with one other.]
600 1 4 $a Flaxman
653 # # $a Mythology, Greek - Gods, Greek - Iconography
653 # # $a Agriculture - Greece
653 # # $a Drawings - Great Britain - 19th century - Neoclassical
655 # 0 $a Greek poetry
655 # 0 $a Pictorial works - Illustrated books - Stipple engravings - Great Britain - 19th century
700 1 # $a Flaxman, John $e source artist
700 1 # $a Blake, William $d 1757-1827. $e engraver.
700 1 # $a Elton $d 1778-1853. $e translator.
700 1 # $a Hesiod
710 2 # $a Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown $e publisher.
852 8 # $d [First copy:] 1821: C-5-04.
852 8 # $d [Second copy:]