| Bodleian Library, Oxford: | 20161 c.1/1 |
| Bodleian Library, Oxford: | 20161 c.1/1 |
| British Library: | C.100.k.25 |
| National Trust: | Peckover |
Included for Poulton's illustrations printed by Curwen.
Each of these 5 volumes has a double title-page (see Glaister 1960 p.109), with volume contents on the left page (verso) and series title on the facing recto.
[1]3r
[series title] The lives of the noble GRECIANS & ROMANES COMPARED TOGETHER BY THAT GRAVE LEARNED PHILOSOPHER AND HISTORIOGRAPHER PLUTARKE OF CHÆRONEA * [Nonesuch logo] TRANSLATED OUT OF GREEKE INTO FRENCH BY JAMES AMYOT; AND OUT OF FRENCH INTO ENGLISHE BY THOMAS NORTH : THE ILLUSTRATIONS BY T. L. POULTON : WITH THE FIFTEEN SUPPLEMENTARY LIVES OF 1603 THE NONESUCH PRESS · LONDON · MCMXXIX [1929]
[1]2v
[volume I contents]
| THESEUS | |
| LYCURGUS | |
| NUMA POMPLILIUS | |
| SOLON | |
| PUBLICOLA | |
| THEMISTOCLES | |
| FURIUS CAMILLUS | |
| PERICLES | |
| FABIUS MAXIMUS | |
| ALCIBIADES | |
| CORIOLANUS |
[1]5v
THE TABLE OF THE NOBLE GRECIANS AND ROMANES compared by Plutarke of Chæronea VOLUME I [table of lives showing Plutarch's comparisons].
vol.I [6] [i]-xxix, [1]-431 [1], plates; ill;.
[6, i] ii-xxix [+1], [1] 2-431 [+1].
[1]4r
[swag] This edition of North's translation of Amyot's French version of Plutarch's Lives is printed from the first edition (1579) with the addition of 15 lives from the third edition (1603). It is limited to 1050 copies for sale in England and 500 copies for sale in the United States of America by Random House. The text has been printed by Bishop and Garrett and William Brendon and Sons in Monotype Fournier; the illustrations, by T. L. Poulton, have been printed by the Curwen Press : the whole on Arches paper.
12"× 8", white laid, Arches made in France, all edges untrimmed, top edge gilt on the rough; ??pt. Fournier, Garamond open capitals, heading for each life is in June (Stephenson Blake); full-page lithographs by Poulton printed at Curwen Press, Plaistow; casing by A. W. Bain of London: brown buckram on bevelled boards, no head- or tail-bands or headcaps, paper label at head of spine in recessed panel : ‘North's Plutarch Vol.I [List of lives]’, spare labels pasted onto foot of rear pastedown.
Publisher's name precedes place of publication on t.p. The volume number is shown in three places: on label at head of spine, on spare label pasted near hinge at foot of rear board, and in heading of Table at [1]5r,
The Bodleian copies have no serial number.
See Dreyfus 1981 cat. 63, but this item was omitted from his list on p.293. By an unaccountable error. description 63 omits mention of the double title-pages. A correct transcript is given of the (recto) series-title for the 5-volume set, but the volume titles listing the lives (on the preceding versos) are omitted.
The production was international despiite the declaration on [1]4v. Dreyfus states that the text of vols. I-II and IV was printed in France (Bishop & Garrett were based in Paris), the other volumes in England (William Brendon and Sons, earlier printers to Stanley Morison, were in Plymouth) The paper was nade in France, and the illustrations and casing were done in London.
Not in Curwen Library or 1963 handlist; Stephen Massil drew my attention to this set while at Peckover; I later saw the similar set at the Bodleian, whose staff kindly assisted with PDFs. I suspect A. W. Bain asked for the extra blank leaves in the prelims of vols. II-V.
Entries for volumes II-V have yet to be written.
11/Sep/1929
Robin Phillips, 2021, revised 39/Oct/2023
