Ovid’s Epistles | 1808 | Fine Full Calf Binding | Marbled Edges

A beautiful early 19th-century edition of Ovid’s Epistles, Translated into English Verse by Various Authors, to which is prefixed The Life of Ovid, published in London in 1808.

Printed by Ellerton and Byworth for J. Walker and a consortium of London booksellers, this small volume contains 167 pages and presents Ovid’s celebrated Heroides in English verse through the work of a number of translators, including Sir Carr Scrope, Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Edward Fairfax, John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, and others.

The Heroides, or Epistles, are among Ovid’s most distinctive works: a series of poetic letters placed in the voices of women and men of classical mythology, exploring love, abandonment, longing, betrayal, and separation. Among the figures represented are Sappho and Phaon, Penelope and Ulysses, Dido and Aeneas, Ariadne and Theseus, Helen and Paris, and Hero and Leander.

Especially desirable is the book’s handsome contemporary full calf binding, the boards richly mottled or speckled in warm brown tones and framed with gilt rules and a delicate gilt decorative border. The spine is ornamented in gilt with decorative floral devices and retains its dark leather title label. Gilt decoration also extends to the board edges.

The volume retains its striking marbled endpapers and marbled page edges, executed in an attractive palette of blue-green and warm orange. An engraved frontispiece and an additional engraved vignette title page precede the letterpress title page, giving this small volume considerable visual appeal. 167pp.

Of additional interest is the provenance: the front pastedown bears the engraved armorial bookplate of Sheffield Neave (1799–1868), a prominent British banker who served as Governor of the Bank of England from 1857 to 1858. The handsome heraldic bookplate identifies the volume as having formed part of Neave’s library, adding a notable association and documented nineteenth-century provenance to this already exceptionally attractive copy.

Condition: Very Good+

The gilt decoration remains notably bright. Binding is sound. Marbled endpapers and all three marbled page edges remain especially attractive. Very well preserved overall. 

Size: 2 7/8” x 5”

A very lovely Regency-era literary miniature, combining classical literature, early nineteenth-century engraving, and an exceptionally decorative period binding.