The Latin Year; With Illustrations by Robert Bateman
London: Marcus Ward & Co., 1877. Early printing. Square 12mo. (7 1/2 inches tall), original blind-stamped white paper boards, blind-stamped with gilt spine, marbled endpapers, all edges yapped, uncut. Early owner signatures to flyleaf and half-title, minor cracking to inner to hinges, spine and boards darkened, gilt title still visible, sporadic offsetting from woodcuts but interiors and plates clean. Very good indeed. Item #745
"ECCE ANGELI ACCESSERUNT ET MINISTRABANT EI" ("BEHOLD ANGELS CAME AND MINISTERED TO HIM")
Lovely Victorian edition of Latin verse capturing the daily liturgical rhythms of the Church—illustrated with 15 splendid black-and-white woodcuts. Still quite handsome in the original yapped paperboard binding.
Selected and edited by the Rev. William John Loftie, the Latin Year follows the Christian calendar of Sundays and Feast Days and Holy Days. The poems are illustrated in the Pre-Raphaelite style, by the English painter and architect Robert Bateman, with a frontispiece depiction of Matthew 4:11: "Ecce angeli accesserunt et ministrabant Ei" ("Behold angels came and ministered to Him") and other woodcuts marking the text. Bound here in stamped paper boards with the original "yapped" edges—a quintessential Victorian binding designed with overlapping edges covering the text on three sides. This copy was presented by Loftie to Dr. H.P. Cholmeley (a physician and editor for the "Lancet") with an inscription: "H.P. Cholmely (sic)/with W.J. Loftie's/ Kindest regards/8th March 1891." First published in 1873 as A Collection of Hymns for the Seasons of the Church, Selected from Mediæval and Modern Authors. With the dolphin-and-anchor device of the Chiswick Press in the colophon. A complete (and much-loved copy) of this popular collection of devotional Latin poetry, illustrated in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and bound in still-lovely blind-stamped white boards.
Price: $150.00