[Rarebooks] FA: Littlebury's HERODOTUS 1709 - First Full English Trans.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with several other 18th and 19th-century English  
titles, ending Sunday, October 25th. More details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

The History of Herodotus. Translated from the Greek. By Isaac  
Littlebury. London: Printed for Edward Castle near Whitehall, and Sam.  
Buckley in Little-Britain, MDCCIX [1709]. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes,  
small 8vo (18.5 cm), bound in period polished calf, boards decorated  
in blind, gilt-stamped spines and morocco spine labels; 447+[17] pp.;  
430+[18] pp. ESTC T147156.

The first complete Herodotus in English, and by some sources the first  
in any modern language. Though somewhat curtailed and larded with  
inaccuracies, Littlebury's version gets generally high marks for its  
style: "simple, graceful, and plain, offering a decent equivalent...of  
the narrative voice of Herodotus who writes speech as it is  
spoken" (Oxford Guide to Literature in Translation); "attractive  
prose" (Donald Latenier: The Histories); "perhaps the best English  
version as regards style, but full of gross errors" (G.C. Macaulay:  
"Herodotus History Translated into English").

Boards and spine a bit rubbed and worn, exterior hinges starting to  
crack but still firm and secure; endpapers foxed, occasional small  
spots to the contents, a few small, inked margin notes or corrections  
in an early/contemporary hand, early owner's signatures of Philip Keay  
to the title-pages (crossed out in vol. I); otherwise clean and crisp,  
firmly bound. A related newspaper clipping from the Times of London,  
dated 1850, loosely laid in. A solid, handsome set.