Londini:: Prostant apud Gul. Sandby in vico dicto Fleetstreet., MDCCXLIX.
Physical Description
2 vols.; 161 mm. (Octavo.)
General Note
Vol. I: [4], vi, [4], 156 p., 26 pl. (incl. frontis.) (In the Royal Academy's copy they are bound in in the order 1-5, 8, 6, 7, 9-16, 20, 21, 23, 24, 22, 25, 19, 17, 26, 18.) - Vol. II: [2], 157-396 p., pl. 27-35.
Contents
Vol. I: [Frontis. (= pl.1), t.p., dedic.] - Q. Horatii Flacci Vita A Suetonio Tranquillo conscripta - Lectori Benevolo - Horatius Signis, Picturis et Numismatibus Illustratus [i.e. list of plates] - [Text with plates]. - Vol. II: [T.p.] - [text with pl.] - Variantes Lectiones - Conjecturae; [colophon].
Responsibility Note
Twelve plates (6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 19, 21, 24, 27, 31, 34, 35) are signed as engraved by I.S.M(üller); the rest are unsigned.
The two title-page vignettes are signed as engraved by J.S. Müller.
The printer is named in the colophon of Vol. II: 'Typis Jacobi Bettenham. Aug. 10, 1749.'
The edition is dedicated by Gul. Sandby to George Prince of Wales [afterwards King George II].
References
ESTC, N14776
ESTC, T46228
Summary Note
Horace's poems, lyric, satiric or didactic, never provided as much stimulus to visual artists as the narrative poems of Ovid and Vergil; but a number of the Odes engage with heroic themes.
In this edition the first volume contains the Odes, Epodes and Carmen Saeculare; the second, the Satires, Epistles and De Arte Poetica. The last work includes the much quoted expression, 'ut pictura poesis' (poetry is as painting), which has been taken up as the basis of various theories of visual art.
The plates illustrate details in Horace's poems. They are described in the list of plates, 'Horatii Signis ... Illustratus', which also indicates their sources - coins, gems, illustrations in earlier books, etc.
Reproductions
A microfilm version was published in 1989 (Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications).
Provenance
Presented by the architect George Aitchison RA in 1901, together with a companion edition of Virgil (see 'Librarian's Report', RA Annual Report for 1901, p. 41).
Binding Note
18th-century white vellum; red morocco spine-labels lettered 'Horatii Opera Tom. I (II)', spines lettered 'R.A.'
Social life and customs - Italy - Rome - History
Latin poetry - Italy - 1st century B.C.
Pictorial works - Illustrated books - Great Britain - 18th century