Brindley in Brocade
[CLASSICS.]
A group of eleven editions in twenty-one volumes from Brindley’s series of Latin classics. London, J. Brindley, 1744–1754.
Eleven works in twenty-one vols, 12mo, with engraved title with Prince of Wales’s feathers to each vol., 6 engraved plates in Lucretius, 2 folding engraved plates in Caesar; Tacitus vol. III bound with a duplicated quire R bound in place of quire P; woodcut and typographic ornaments throughout; occasional moderate foxing and toning, otherwise excellent copies; bound in contemporary (likely French) burgundy morocco gilt, edges gilt, yellow silk placemarkers, star-and-dot brocade endpapers by Johann Michael Munck of Augsburg (signed variously ‘In Augsp.’, ‘Bey Johann Michael Munck’, ‘No. 30’); some minute worming to a few spines, three endcaps chipped; engraved armorial device cut out of paper depicting a griffin segreant contourné to front flyleaf verso of all but one vol.
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A group of eleven editions in twenty-one volumes from Brindley’s series of Latin classics.
An attractive set of twenty-one volumes from Brindley’s series of Latin classics, handsomely bound and with resplendent gilt brocade endpapers signed by the well-known Augsburg papermaker Johann Michael Munck (fl. 1730–1760).
Published and ‘very well printed’ (Plomer) by J. Brindley (fl. 1724–1758) – bookseller and binder to the Royal Family (hence the Prince of Wales’s feathers to each title here) – the present series was largely edited by the Irish classicist and coiner Usher Gahagan (d. 1749). Arrested and sentenced to death while the series was ongoing for ‘diminishing the coin of the realm’, Gahagan attempted to win a pardon by translating Pope’s ‘The Temple of Fame’ and ‘The Messiah’ into Latin verse dedicated to Newcastle, the then prime minister. His efforts were in vain, and he was hanged at Tyburn.
Our set comprises the works of Caesar (2 vols, 1744, ESTC T136731), Curtius Rufus (2 vols, 1746, T144277), Horace (1744, T46227), Lucan (2 vols, 1751, T114117), Lucretius (1749, T32128), Nepos (1744, T83013), Ovid (5 vols, 1745, T99863), Phaedrus (1750, T141020), Sallust (1744, T133040), Tacitus (4 vols, 1754, T152387), and Virgil (1744, T139210).
For the endpapers, see Haemmerle 250; Kopylov 126.