The Works of Homer, the Celebrated Grecian Poet: Including New and Complete Editions of The Iliad and The Odyssey. By William Henry Melmouth. London: for Alex Hogg, c.1798, 4to.
A beautiful one volume edition of the works of Homer, being the first Melmouth edition. This is a lavish production with 40 beautiful full page copper-plates throughout and really lovely typography. A very readable English edition of Homer, exceptionally complete also with Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice, a biography of the Life of Homer, and a Geographical Table of the Towns in Homer's Catalogue of Greece, Geographical Table of Troy, an Essay on Homer's Battles, etc.
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The Melmouth edition is one of the most loved translations of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad into English, being adopted by Easton Press for their contemporary edition in 2013 as an example.
Size: 223 x 263 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[vii, pp.8-659, i, i, iii]
Full soft suede leather binding with a blindstamped design between raised bands to the spine and a tooled red morocco label. Minor rubbing to spine, mostly to raised bands and extremities. Minor loss to the head of the backstrip. Boards very good or better, a little rubbed but generally nice. Spine a bit discoloured. Front joints slightly cracked with rear joints fine; both boards are securely attached with the binding secure and without shelf lean. Internally collates as complete including all 40 plates and the foldout map bound at the rear of the Odyssey (pp.638 verso). Internally generally clean and bright though with some foxing. The foxing mostly affects versos of the plates as typical, but there is some foxing affecting a few textual leaves too, also with some minor dampstaining/toning, but remains internally good to very good.
