Beschreibung:

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius (48 B.C.-17 A.D.). Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books . Translated by Garth, Dryden, Addison and others. London: Jacob Tonson, 1717. 2° (397 x 245mm). Engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait of the Princess of Wales by Vertue after Kneller, 16 plates, headpieces and initials, with an additional engraved plate on thick paper captioned 'Les Metamorphoses d'Ovide' by B. Picart dated 1731 bound opposite frontispiece. (Occasional light spotting, browning, slightly heavier at beginning of books.) Contemporary blind-panelled calf, red edges (early 20th-century reback with gilt spine with raised bands in 7 compartments, lettered in second, the remainder with the Bright crest, endpapers replaced at time of reback, extremities rubbed). Provenance : SIR SAMUEL GARTH (two-line verse on preliminary leaf in Garth's hand; note in 18th-century hand preserved on old paper laid down on front pastedown noting that Garth presented the book on October 1718, to:) – Mary Lane – James Brindley (18th-century engraved armorial bookplate) – Bright family (binding). TRANSLATOR ' S OWN COPY OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF OVID . Sir Samuel Garth (1660/61-1719), physician and poet, was well-known as a Whig wit, and was a member of the political and dining group, the Kit Kat Club. There, Garth met Addison as well as the publisher Tonson, who introduced him to Dryden. An active poet and man of letters, Garth set about translating the Metamorphoses , pulling together material by a wide range of authors such as Addison and Dryden. This edition was extremely successful, and was reprinted well into the 19th-century.