Text in ev’ry other page annext . . .
London: Printed for
R. and J. Dodsley,
m.dcc.lviii
. [1758.]
First Edition. 12mo. 72 leaves, engraved frontispiece by Major after Cipriani.
Lowndes III, 1469.
Halkett and Laing I, 277.
Maffeo Vegio, 1406-1458, Italian poet. His
Libri XII Aeneido Supplementum was first printed in the Venice edition of Virgil’s Opera, 1471, and was frequently reprinted.
John Ellis, 1698-1790, English political writer and scrivener, was the author of this poem, based on the work of Vegio. In his preface,
which is anonymous, he states: “The courteous Reader is to be informed that the following Trifle, which I will not have the
assurance to stile a Work, is a Travesty of Maphaeus’s thirteenth Book, or Supplement, to Virgil’s Æneis.” The preface gives
an account of the life of Maffeo Vegio.
[4284]
24
Virgilio del Caro.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 136, no. 17, as above,
2 v.
VIRGILIUS MARO,
Publius.
L’Eneide di Virgilio del Commendatore Annibal Caro. Tomo Primo[-Secondo]. In
Parigi: presso la Vedova
Quillau,
m.dcc.lx
. [1760.]
PA6813 .A5 C3 1760
2 vol. 8vo. 161 and 173 leaves, engraved portrait of Virgil in Vol. I by Ficquet and in Vol. II of Caro by Defehrt, both after Zocchi, engraved title in each volume by Chenu after Zocchi, 12 plates, 12 vignettes, 6 culs-de-lampe after Zocchi (one after Prévost), by Chenu, Defehrt, Lempereur, Leveau, Pasquier, Prévost and Tardieu; list of errata in Vol. I.
Brunet V, 1308.
Graesse VI, 363.
De Ricci-Cohen, 1021.
Annibale Caro, 1507-1566, Italian poet, first published his translation of the Æneid in Venice, 1581.
[4285]
25
Milton’s Paradise lost.
Foulis.
fol.
1815 Catalogue, page 136, no. 39, as above, but reading
fol. Foulis.
MILTON,
John.
Paradise lost, a Poem. The author John Milton.
Glasgow: Printed by
Robert and Andrew Foulis, printers to the University,
1770.
Folio. 244 leaves, engraved vignette with portrait on the title-page. A copy of this edition was not seen for collation.
This edition is entered by Jefferson in his undated manuscript catalogue, with the price,
14/6. The edition which he ordered Reibelt to import for him in 1805 may have been for someone else.
Jefferson quoted from
Paradise Lost to illustrate his remarks on blank verse in his
Thoughts on English prosody
[see no. 4262 above] and at one point compared Milton’s lines with the corresponding passage in the Book of Genesis:
. . . the Poet unfettered by rhyme, is at liberty to prune his diction of those tautologies, those feeble things necessary
to introduce the rhyming word. with no other trammel but that of measure, he is able to condense his thoughts & images and
to leave nothing but what is truly poetical. when enveloped in all the pomp and majesty of his subject he sometimes even throws
off the restraint of the regular pause: ‘Of man’s first disobedience And the fruit of that forbidden tree Whose mortal taste
brought death into the world, and all our woe With loss of Eden, till one greater man restore us, And regain the blissful
seat, Sing heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top of Oreb, or of Sinai didst inspire that Shepherd, who first taught the chosen
seed, In the beginning, how the heav’ns & earth rose out of Chaos. Then stay’d the fervid wheels, and in his hand he took
the golden compasses, Prepar’d in god’s eternal store, To circumscribe this universe, and all created things: One foot he
center’d & the other turn’d round through the vast profundity obscure & said, Thus far extend. there are but two regular pauses
in this whole passage of seven verses. they are constantly drowned by the
