OVID [SANDYS, George].
Ovid's Metamorphosis Englished, Mythologized, And Represented in Figures. An Essay to the Translation of Virgil's Aeneis.
“ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS IN WESTERN LITERATURE”: Rare 17th century printing of George Sandys' revered English translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis, illustrated with two engraved portraits of Ovid
London: Printed by J. L. for Andrew Hebb, 1640.
$4,000.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-149743
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Fourth edition of George Sandys' revered English translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Folio, contemporary paneled boards, rebacked, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, illustrated with two copies of the engraved portrait of Ovid (one opposite engraved title, the other opposite the Life), engraved title page, and 15 full-page plates (one at the beginning of each book of the poem); with the first book of the Aeneid at the end. Sandys is pronounced by Dryden to be the best versifier of the preceding age; and Pope affirmed that English Poetry owed much of its beauty to his translations. STC 18968; Sabin 76460; ESTC S121931. In very good condition, period ownership inscription to the verso of the frontispiece. Rare.
"In the Metamorphoses Ovid attempts no less a task than the linking together into one artistically harmonious whole all the stories of classical mythology. And this he does, until the whole range of wonders is passed in review, from the dawn of creation, when chaos was changed by divine fiat into the orderly universe, down to the age of the poet himself… Every important myth is at least touched upon… The poem thus forms a manual of classical mythology, and is the most important source of mythical lore for all writers since Ovid's time" (Miller, Ovid III:xi-xii, Loeb Classical Library). "It is at once a comprehensive account of Latin mythology and a feat of fictional construction which taught innumerable later writers, among them Chaucer and Dante" (Clute & Grant, 739). Shakespeare, Marlowe, Drayton, Spenser, and Chapman were all deeply indebted to Ovid's "collection of legends of transformations" (Peck, 1151).
Ovid's Metamorphosis Englished, Mythologized, And Represented in Figures. An Essay to the Translation of Virgil's Aeneis.
$4,000.00
In Stock