blackwell rare books
‘This is called the best variorum edition.... The text is taken from the best Elzevir edition of 1676; the Erythraean Index, from the Venetian edition of 1566. The typography, which is extremely beautiful, and not inferior to the best Elzevir editions in octavo, is accompanied with elegant vignettes; and the edition may be considered as a very valuable and commodious one’ (Dibdin). The main editing was done by Jacob van Emenes (16351679) and it was seen through the press after his death by Pancratius Maaswyck.
The Blair-Drummond Ruddiman Douglas Virgil 109. Virgil. Aeneis, Translated into Scottish verse, by the Famous Gawin Douglas Bishop of Dunkeld. A New Edition. … To which is added A Large Glossary, Explaining the Difficult Words: Which may serve for a Dictionary to the Old Scottish Language. Edinburgh: Printed by Mr. Andrew Symson, and Mr. Robert Freebairns, and sold at their Shops, 1710, FIRST RUDDIMAN EDITION , a large and thick paper copy (345 x 225 mm and decidedly bulkier than usual), title within double ruled border, occasional light foxing or browning (far less than usual), some offsetting of text, pp. [viii, including initial blank], 19, iv, [iv, List of Subscribers, sometimes missing], 237, [1], ff. 238-40, pp. 241-486, [96], folio, contemporary Scottish speckled calf, double gilt fillets on sides, gilt roll tooled decoration on edges, neatly rebacked, red lettering piece, corners neatly repaired, edges a trifle worn, armorial book-plate inside front cover of James Drummond of Blair-Drummond (a subscriber) and his attractively inscribed note of acquisition on front free endpaper, ‘Edinburgh, May 1710’ and below this an intricate monogram BD, very very good ( ESTC T139442; Alston IX/71; ECSB 145; Geddie p.226; Lowndes p.2782) £2,000 An exceptionally good copy of a book usually found in worse condition, thanks to the poor quality of paper used. It would also appear to have been printed hurriedly, or at least not left long enough to dry before binding, as various evidences of the printing process testify. Curiously, none of the bibliographies consulted mention the discrepancy in the pagination. ‘Douglas’s greatest claim to fame rests upon the Eneados, a translation of Virgil’s Aeneid … [it] was a pioneering work; what is more, it was not a free paraphrase nor a mere sample of one or two books, but a careful translation of the whole of Virgil’s great poem. Douglas was aware of the novelty of his undertaking. He proudly asserted his own fidelity to Virgil’s text, and voiced pungent criticisms of William Caxton’s recent version of the Aeneid , which was no more like Virgil ‘than the devill and Sanct Austyne’ (prologue 1, 143)… He wished to communicate to his countrymen a knowledge of the Aeneid, and also to enrich his native “Scottis” tongue with something of the “fouth”, or copiousness, of Latin ... In Ezra Pound’s opinion “Douglas gets more poetry out of Virgil than any other translator” ( Literary Essays, 1954, 245)’ (Priscilla J. Bawcutt in ODNB ). The only earlier edition of Douglas’s ‘Virgil’ is the very rare 1553 edition; this second edition, containing an excellent biography by Bishop John Sage, was edited by the scholar/ printer Thomas Ruddiman, whose folio ‘is the earliest monument of a scholarly study of Scots. Its famous glossary is acknowledged to have laid the foundation of Scottish lexicography. The text is based upon the old printed version, which Ruddiman sought to purge of its...errors by comparing it with the Latin original and with the Ruthven MS. in Edinburgh University Library, and by “narrowly observing” the language of Douglas and his contemporaries...’ (Geddie). It has long been acknowledged as the best edition, and was reprinted by the Bannatyne Club in 1839 (without the glossary).
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