Carthage

1772 — pp. (4), 308. The edition without the cancellans at G2. 12mo. [176 x 105 mm.] Foxed. It is very unusual to find in a Baskerville that some leaves (in two gatherings of this copy) were smudged during printing, and permitted to pass. Contemporary full sprinkled calf binding. Gilt tulip roll on the boards. Spine ornamented with gold crossed arrows. Joints tender. Printed ExLibris of John Rayner. Gaskell 47. Terence (Ca. 190-159 B.C.), the great Latin comic poet, was born in Carthage. He came to Rome as the slave of a senator, Terentius Lucanus. In the house of Lucanus he was educated like a free man and soon emancipated. His successful first play, 'Andria' introduced him to Roman society, and the circle of Scipio, Philus, and Laelius. His surviving six comedies are drawn from Athenian sources, especially from lost plays by Menander. Terence has been read for over two thousand years, and his influence on European literature cannot be overestimated. He imparted to Latin the sense of artistic elegance, consistency and moderation which made it a model for all literary epochs. In him we find a meeting-point for three great civilizations - the decaying Greece; Carthage, soon to pass away into oblivion; and nascent Italy, poised to absorb the world. John Baskerville (1706-1775) was the greatest printer of his era. Born in Wolverley, Hereford - Worcester, England, he became a writing master in Birmingham. He also carried on a successful japanning (varnishing) business there. In about 1750 he began to make experiments in letter founding, and produced the wonderful series of types now named after him. His first book, the Virgil of 1757, was also the first to be printed upon wove paper (manufactured by a process that he invented). In 1758 he be came printer to Cambridge University. All of his books bear show fine craftsmanship and a refined sense of design. In the last few years before his death, Baskerville published a few Latin classics in quarto and duodecimo. "All these bear the marks of unabated genius even in his declining days: and suffice, had he printed nothing else, to distinguish him as the first typographer of his time" - T. B. Reed, in 'Old English Letter Foundries' "Quot homines tot sentensiae; suo quoiqu e mos " So many men, so many opinions; a law of his own to each -- Terence. ** PRICE JUST REDUCED!! W154