Virgil | Georgicks [Bucolicks], translated by John Martyn, 1741-49, 2 vols, colour-printed botanical plates

Publius Vergilius Maro

The Georgicks [Bucolicks] of Virgil, with an English translation and notes by John Martyn. London: Richard Reily, 1741–1749

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, 4to (285 x 225mm.), Georgics: list of subscribers, 12 coloured plates including a double-page world map, and 5 botanical plates printed in colours and finished by hand; Bucolics: engraved frontispiece, printed title in red and black, 2 hand-coloured maps, one folding, 2 hand-coloured engraved plates, contemporary mottled calf, joints cracking

The plates exhibit a very early example of colour printing, likely executed by Jacob van Huysum and Elisha Kirkall, who worked on Martyn’s Historia, although they are unsigned.

LITERATURE:

Hunt, 519

PROVENANCE:

Samuel James Waring, 1st Baron Waring (1860–1940), British industrialist and Chairman of the furniture store Waring and Gillow, of Foots Cray Place, a Palladian house with magnificent garden in Kent, based on the Villa Capra near Vicenza, bookplate