This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/26/2022
CAESAR, Gaius Julius (100–44 BCE). The Commentaries of Caesar, Translated into English. To Which is Prefixed a Discourse Concerning the Roman Art of War. Translated by William Duncan. With index and dedication to George Prince of Wales. Large folio (419 x 254mm). 86 engraved plates, mostly double–page or folding, including 6 double–page maps and an engraved portrait frontispiece of Caesar; numerous engraved head– and tail–pieces, and initials (occasional offsetting from plates to text, tiny hole to plate 43, frontispiece gently foxed). INCLUDES THE FAMED DOUBLE–PAGE “BULL” PLATE (“The Ursus or Buffalo”), often lacking. Contemporary English calf (rebacked with renewed spine antique, light edgewear to boards, spine chipped near head, some browning to title–page). FIRST DUNCAN EDITION, translated from the Latin of Samuel Clarke’s 1712 edition that was issued with the same amount of plates. “Beautifully printed, and richly adorned with a variety of fine cuts… the greatest part of them being plans of battles, sieges, and encampments, or representations of the situation and face of the countries in which the most material transactions passed… The translator has in great measure caught the spirit of his author, and… has preserved Caesar’s turn of phrase and expression” (Brueggemann, 520–21). ESTC T136453; Lowndes I, p. 346; Moss, 241–42. From the private library of a distinguished Chicago book collector.