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- Original Leaves from Famous Books
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Show more"Francis Bacon presents a paradox. He is celebrated by many as the earliest thinker to grasp the implication of the scientific method. Bacon nevertheless rejected the most celebrated scientific discoveries of his own time and opposed the Copernican system with particular severity. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, remarked that Bacon wrote science more like a Lord Chancellor than a scientist. Bacon, however, persistently attacked scholasticism, for he wished to deliver the world from Aristotelianism, and did much with his persuasive writing to substitute for it the inductive method. The De Augmentis Scientiarum is an expansion of Bacon's earlier work, The Advancement of Learning, first published in 1605. It was part of a tremendous project, The Great Renewal, which was left far from complete. In the preface Bacon wrote, "I have propounded my opinion, naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgment by confutations." The New Atlantis,written in 1627 is a scientific Utopia; the central establishment was the so-called House of Solomon, the laboratory of co-operating scientists honored above all other men. In Wisdom of the Ancients, he tries to explain ancient fables by ingenious allegories. Bacon polished all his prose sentences until they reached a "shining beauty that was most poetic." His purpose was "teaching men to think more wisely" and his motto was, "discriminate". This work was printed by John Haviland. The title page was composed in Latin to conform with the text. Restrictions on book printing were so stringent at this time that the period has been called the darkest in the history of English printing". (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"The greatest of the English epics is Beowulf, written shortly after the year 700, probably by a monk in a Northumbrian monastery. The subject matter is an accumulation of centuries of pagan and Christian legends. These are given local and contemporary color by the description of many of the eight century social manners. This epic has great pictorial power, stately speeches, momentous action and the portrait of the idealized King. Beowulf, the mildest, kindest, and most beloved of men, makes this long poem one of the most important heritages from our Teutonic ancestors. The reflections of the author show a Christian point of view, while the descriptions of the ceremonies are pagan. The original text, mutilated and incomplete, written in a most archaic English, was a challenge to the translator, William Morris. "To Morris, the story,' so writes H. Holliday Sparling, 'or what remains of it, was intelligible and interesting, but not even he could render it in terms that are intelligible to any but a highly trained reader." (Ege, Otto F.) Beowulf was "done out" of the Old English by William Morris, assisted by A.J. Wyatt, in 1894. In 1895, it was issued as the thirty-second publication of the Kelmscott Press, founded in 1891 by Morris. The type is the "Troy", Morris' second type of design of which he wrote, "... herein the task I set myself was to redeem the Gothic character from the charge of unreadableness... I think I may claim (the "Troy") to be as readable as a roman". The Kelmscott volumes generally are regarded more as objects of art than readable books. Nevertheless, Morris' ideals did more to raise the standard of printing in many countries and to encourage individual expression than the work of any other printer who preceded him". (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "The Books of Hours, the outcome of changes in the society in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, are the best known as well as the most artistic of all the theological volumes of the Middle Ages. With the general acceptance of the Christianity throughout Europe by the year 1300, a general prayer book for the wealthy laity was needed, and these Books of Hours, Horae, Offices, or Hours of the Virgin, as they are called, filled that they want. In general, they contain sixteen sections, including the calendar, with the Saint Days; the Gospels of the Nativity ; the eight hours of the virgin, the most important part; and the Service of the Dead. The Books of the Hours were deemed so essential a means of salvation and of obtaining indulgences that it is probable that there were few families of wealth or nobility who did not posses a copy. Emperors, dukes and merchant princes frequently ordered richly illuminated and illustrated copies as betrothal gifts. Pilgrims usually returned home from their journey to a shrine with as fine a copy as they could afford. Books of Hours were usually produced in the medieval scriptoriums with the patience engendered in a sheltered life and the skill fostered by religious devotion. All materials used, parchment, ink, colors, and quills, were prepared within monastic walls. The monastic book hands (or styles of writing), for long periods of time, were crystallized, so it is possible to allocate an example to a particular country and century, even when there is no mention in the text as to where the book was written." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Boccaccio, Dante and Petrarch are the triumvirate who in the brilliant fourteenth century, ushered in the Renaissance and founded modern literature. "Boccaccio" to quote Symonds, "was the first to substitute a literature of the people for the literature of the learned classes and the aristocracy,... he delineated the world as he found it". The hundred stories in The Decameron are told by seven young ladies and three-gentlemen while taking refuge from a plague which raged in Florence in the year 1348. They are enclosed in a clever framework. On each of ten successive days, one of the story tellers is appointed king or queen, and under his or her direction each member contributes his narrative, one frequently suggesting the next. These stories in The Decameron, written between the years 1348-1358, cover every phase of human life- the pathetic, the humorous, the base and the noble. Certain of the stories were later retold by Chaucer, other by Lessing, Longfellow and Tennyson. Many other writers come under the spell of Boccaccio, the consummate narrator. The Ashendene Press, perhaps the greatest private press of all time, was founded in 1894 by St. John Hornby and occupied the leisure time of this busy man for forty years. It followed a middle course between the decorative magnificence of Morris' Kelmscott Press and the classic severity of Cobden Sanderson's Doves Press. The type used in this work is "Subiaco" and is based on the type face used by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Subiaco, Italy, in 1465. This large folio, which was in process of printing for seven years, is considered one of the great achievements of the Ashendene Press." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"In the year 1748, Dodsley, the best known publisher of London, and six other bookseller paid Samuel Johnson a sum of ?1575 to compile a Dictionary of the English Language. This sum emboldened Johnson to move from his squalid quarters in the Strand to a pretentious house on Gough Square, in London, where he and five or six amanuenses labored for seven years, instead of three as first planned. Johnson's method was to read incessantly the best authors and to underscore the illustrative quotations he wished used and then to give them to his assistants to insert in their proper places. The general excellence of the definitions, the judicious selection of quotations, the etymologies, though often faulty, make the Dictionary useful and entertaining reading today. "Pension, an allowance made to anyone without an equivalence. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country". "Lexicographer" Johnson defined as "a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people". Johnson in the preface reveals much of himself. "... In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed;...that the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great, not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but in midst of inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow..." The work was printed by W. Strahan and seen through the press by Andrew Millar, one of the underwriting publishers. The underwriters received excellent returns on their original investment as edition after edition issued from the presses." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "Dante Alighieri, the supreme exponent of the Middle Ages, is, according to Ruskin, "the central of all the world as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and intellectual faculties, all at their highest." Dante's great work, the Divine Comedy, is an original creation. It is explained in his own words: "The subject of the whole work, taken literally, is the state of souls after death, regarded as fact. Taken allegorically, its subject is man, insofar as by merit or demerit, in the exercise of free will, he is exposed to the reward or punishment of justice." In the narrative of his journey, which was inspired by a vision in 1300, Dante is accompanied by two guides, "Virgil, who stands for human reasons,... And Beatrice, who symbolizes divine grace." Virgil cannot lead the poet beyond Purgatory, while Beatrice lifts him through the spheres of Paradise by contemplation. The last line symbolizes the new "love which moves the sun and other stars." The magnitude of Dante's conception is no more wonderful than the composition and form in which he expressed it with metrical virtuosity through the hundred cantos. The lasting popularity of the work is evident from the vast critical literature that has been written concerning this work. This edition of Commedia, printed in Venice, 1491, by Petrus de Piasio of Cremona, is one of the best known of all the numerous fifteenth century editions. For several years, (1480-4183), de Piasio was in partnership with A. Torresanus, into whose hand the equipment of Jenson had fallen after the latter's death." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Miguel de Cervantes, poet, novelist, and dramatist, was endowed with a rich imagination, keen wit, penetrating intellect and great knowledge of life and mankind. Poverty had forced him to enlist in war service against the Turks and African Corsairs. He has captured and enslaved for seven years before being ransomed. These experiences seemed to strengthen the natural faculties of Cervantes. In 1605, when the author was fifty-eight years of the age, the first part of Don Quixote, the work that immortalized his name, appeared. Havelock Ellis in his easy on Don Quixote writes, "It leads into an atmosphere in which the ideal and the real are at home. It blends together the gravest and gayest things in the world... It is a story that a child may enjoy a tragic comedy that only the wisest can understand... It has entered into the lives of the people of every civilized land; it has become part of our human civilization". Don Quixote, 'the most cosmopolitan, the most universal of books', has six-hundred and sixty-seven other personages in addition to the two famous characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Not one of them is a villain. It is a coincidence that a Shakespeare's King Lear appeared the same year as Cervantes' Don Quixote- and that both these authors died on the same day in 1615. This third Madrid edition, printed in 1608 by Juan de la Cuesta, is a known as the first "Academic" edition since the Madrid Academy considered it of great textual importance. Printing was at a ebb at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Margaret Stillwell, commenting on this facts, adds, "If Cervantes had been born when the Spanish states were in ascendency, who knows what stunning format some sixteenth century printer might have produced for Don Quixote!". (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Montaigne, the foremost apostle of urbanity and detachment, wrote his Essays between the years 1571 and 1588. In the note "The Author to the Reader", the purpose is clearly stated. "...I desire therein to be delineated in mine owne genuine, simple, and ordinarie fashion...; for it is myselfe I pourtray... Thus, gentle Reader , myselfe am the groundworke of my booke: it is then no reason thou shouldest employ thy time about so frivolous and vaine a subject. Therefore Farewell." In these three books of Essays, Montaigne is always asking, "What do I know?" and then in discussions and personal essays he gives us meditations on his wide classical readings, observations of life around him, and revelations of his own whims and habits. Montaigne also shows that he believes in fraternity and the underlying goodness of humanity and he is therefore a leading representative of the French spirit in the Renaissance. The standard English translation is the one used in this edition, made by John Florio in the early part of the seventeenth century. This polyglot scholar, born in Italy, later a teacher of French and Italian at Oxford, made in this translation an English masterpiece and gave us Montaigne, the solitary philosopher, "the best companion in the world". In 1901, Bruce Rogers, "the ideal of all those who have tried to produce books", designed a special font "Montaigne" for this monumental edition of the Essays in attempt to meet a want for a large type face that would avoid the blackness of Morris' types and the thin effect of the ordinary types when used in the larger sizes". The Essays of Montaigne is one of the famous Riverside Limited Editions for which literary selections were determined by the rule that the text should 'allow of an individual style of typographical treatment." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more";In terse, restrained language, Sir Sidney Lee, in his life of Shakespeare, gives us a fine example of criticism when he writes, 'In knowledge of human character, in wealth of humor, in depth of passion, in fertility of fancy, and in soundness of judgment he has no rival ?.. To Shakespeare the intellect of the world, speaking in diverse accents, applies with one accord his own words: 'How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In apprehension how like a god'. The First Folio, printed in 1623, contained not only all the works previously printed, but also seventeen others, 'all true to original copies,' which no doubt means the manuscript copies in the possession of the company of the players to which Shakespeare belonged. These were edited and seen through the presss by his fellow actors and friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, 'without ambition either of selfeprofit or fame'. In an epistle, To the Great Variety of Readers, regarding Shakespeare manuscripts, these men say, 'his mind and hand went together; and what he thought, he uttered with that easiness, that we haue scarce receiued from him a bolt in his papers'. The Second Folio appeared in 1632, the Third Folio, many of which were lost in the great London fire, in 1664. The Fourth Folio, the last, was printed in 1685. In each reprinting, more typographical errors or 'corrections' crept in , due to careless proofreading, or ignorant actorsin their attempt to modernize the lines" (Ege, Otto F.) ";Herringman?s shop, 'The sign of Blue Anchor', was one of the chief lounging places for the literary lights of Restoration London. The paper used for the Folio was the best crown paper available, much better than that used for the printing of Bibles in those days" (Ege, Otto F.) "And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live" (Ben Jonson)
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Show moreCaption: "Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa (1292-1298), composed The Golden Legend with the object to write not a collection of lives and legends of the saints for the learned, but a book of devotion for the common people. The stories tell of the struggle of several hundred saints with the devil, who appears in every possible form, bird, beast, reptile, and particularly woman. The saints always triumph. It became one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century, more than seventy editions were printed in Latin, eight in Italian, fourteen in Dutch, three in English. Caxton wrote of this work, "Forlyke as gold passeth in value all other mettalles, so thys legend exceeded all other books". Luther denounced the work as immoral, and preachers in the Reformation period called the tales "Legends of Iron", for, they said, they were written by "a man with an iron mouth and leaden heart." This particular edition, an incunabulum, was printed in Venice in 1480 by Antonio de Strata of Cremona, who became noted for the textual accuracy of his publications. This renown was due the editing and the proofreading by the great scholar, Vittorio de Pisa. This Golden Legend was the first publication of the de Strata press." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Gerard, a Barber-Surgeon, employed his energies chiefly upon horticulture and for twenty years had a renowned garden in Holborn, the fashionable suburb of London. Gerard's reputation rests on his work Generall Historie of Plants. Most of the 1800 woodcuts used were taken from earlier herbals, but the one illustrating the potato plant is perhaps the first figure of the plant ever issued. We cannot accept Gerard's as that of a scientist, for, as Arber states, his 'account of the "Goose tree"... "tree bearing Geese," removes what little respect one may have for him as a scientist, not indeed because he held and absurd belief, which was widely current at that time, but because he described it, with utter disregard of truth, as confirmed by his own observation'. Gerard states, "But what our eies have seen and hands have touched, we shall declare". He than relates "that trees actually bearing shells, which open and hatch out barnacle geese occur in the northern part of Scotland". Many copies of Gerard's Herbal were treasured in English homes for well over two hundred years- as a guide for folk medicine. The "virtues" of the plants made this the "Home Book of Medicine" for every possible ailment, as "Kings evil", "casting for the dead child", "shortness of breath", "dissolving clotted blood", "cooling the heat of the inward partes", and even "baldness". The printer of this work, John Norton, alderman, Printer to Queen Elizabeth in Latin and Greek, was also the first to establish a press at the college of Eton. Norton had previously commissioned a Dr. Priest to translate into English the great botanical work of Dodoens published in 1583, but Priest died before the work was finished. Gerard adopted Priest's work, re-arranged and completed it, and published it dishonestly as is own." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreOdyssey , a sequel, which deals with the marvelous, the romantic and the domestic, was written for women. These works were existent as early as 1000 B.C. and were handed down for several hundred years by public reciters until reduced to writing under Pisistratus (605-527 B.C.). There are many famous translation made by men who were poets in their own right; Chapman 1614, Pope 1725, Bryant 1871, Morris 1887. Prose translations are also numerous, the latest being that of the Odyssey by the famous English soldier T.E. Lawrence. He attempted to instill new vigor into the old story by a striking modernization of the language,an example of the fine art of translation". Odyssey" (Ege, Otto F.).
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Show more"In sheer literary excellence, it is hardly conceivable that the bible of 1611 known as the King James Authorized Version will never be surpassed. The scholars and the linguists who worked for seven years on this version spared no pains to make it as perfect as they could. It was planned for the average man and woman. They did not disdain, as stated in the preface, "to bring back to the anvil that which we have hammered". The style is an evolution, "a revision of revisions" of the bible made during the sixteenth century in England. It rests largely on the simple and energetic diction of Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, first printed in Germany in the year 1525. The predominance of Saxon words is very remarkable. In the preface, drawn up by Dr. Miles Smith, later bishop of Gloucester, the authors disclaimed all originality and wrote, "We never thought from the beginning... to make of a bad one a good one... but to make a good one better or out of many good ones principal good one." Many great English authors give unstinted praise to this Bible. Macaulay says, "If everything else in our language should perish this book would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power". Tennyson says "The Bible ought to be read, were it only for the sake of the grand English in which it is written, an education in itself". However, it was slow to win its ultimate position of unquestionable supremacy. King James deserves little credit for this work which bears his name. Barker, the printer, advanced considerable money to the editors during the period of writing. The nickname, The "He" Bible, was given to the first printing because of the wording in Ruth III:15, "and he went into the city". The second issue printed "she"." (Ege, Otto F.) With the Apocrypha
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Show moreCaption: "Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers is a collection of eighty-two sketches, divided into ten books. It is the only extant work of this third century biographer. Although full of anecdotes and highly colored narratives, it is still the chief source of information concerning the history of Greek philosophy and the private lives and habits of the most eminent philosophers of antiquity. There are also many valuable quotations from lost works included in the compilation. This translation of The Lives of the Philosophers was made by the brilliant Ambrogio Traversari, the only great monastic scholar of the Renaissance. Jenson, the most noted of all fifteenth century printers, produced about one hundred and fifty books in about ten years. Updike, in his monumental volumes Printing Types, states, "Jenson's roman type have been accepted models for roman letters ever since he made them, and, repeatedly copied in our day, have never been equaled". Our contemporary types which have been inspired by the Jenson letter include the "Golden" type of William Morris, the "Doves" type of Sir Emery Walker and T.J Cobden Sanderson, and the "Montaigne" and "Centaur" types by Bruce Rogers. Jenson's successor, Herbort, in a broadside, extols the virtues of these types in the following glowing phrases. "(They) ought to ascribe (this design) rather to divine than to human wit... His books do not produce weariness but rather give delight by their exactness and precision; they do not harm one?s eye but rather help them and do them good?, hence our debt to that excellent man, Master Nicolas Jenson, is great indeed"." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Samuel Johnson was an Episcopal minister in Connecticut. He refused Benjamin Franklin's offer of first presidency of the Academy of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pennsylvania). Three years later, he accepted the same office at King's College (now Columbia University). Johnson, did, however, prepare two texts for the students of Franklin's academy, who ranged from fourteen to sixteen years of age. The first of these was Noetica. The title page states, "The First PRINCIPLES of Human Knowledge, Being a LOGICK including both METAPHYSICS and DIALETIC or the art of REASONING with a brief PATHOLOGY, and an Account of the gradual progress of the HUMAN MIND, from the first Dawnings of Sense to the Highest Perfection". The full title for Ethica, the second work is, "The First PRINCIPLE of Moral Philosophy and especially that part which is called ETHICS in a CHAIN of necessary CONSEQUENCES from certain FACTS" Benjamin Franklin, because of his wide interest, important inventions, searching intellect and epoch-making contribution to democratic government, is considered one of the most distinguished of men, as well as the outstanding printer in his own period. During his long and busy life, here and abroad, his interest in printing never lessened. When he wrote his will in his closing days of his life, it began: "I, Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, Printer, Late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States to the court of France..." (Ege, Otto F.) "The first college textbooks to be written and printed in North America"
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Show moreCaption: "Dr. Hartmann Schedel, the compiler of this Nuremberg Chronicle or Weltchronik, spent more time reading history than practicing medicine. Italian, English, and French chroniclers had treated German history rather slightingly; to correct this condition, Dr. Schedel persuaded two wealthy merchants of Nuremberg, Sebald Schreyder and Sebastian Kamermaister, to underwrite a new chronicle. The book holds great fascination for us, not for its text but for the lavish abundance of woodcuts. Two noted artists, Michael Wolgemut, the master of Albrecht Durer, and his stepson, William Pleydenwurff, were engaged to make the wood-cut illustrations. A total of 1809 pictures, made from 645 blocks, appear in the book with complete disregard for validity. Ninety-six blocks were used to portray 596 portraits, so that the portrait assigned to Nebuchadnezzar earlier appears later as several of the German emperors; the block for the town of Mainz does service also for Naples. The characters with elongated fingers and unkempt hair have been attributed to Wolgemut. The famous printer Anton Koberger, formerly a baker, established his first press about the year 1470, and continued to print and publish for more than fifty years. He employed, at various times, over one hundred workmen on his twenty-four presses as binders, illuminators, and artists. Koberger became the first wholesale printer and publisher. He exchanged his books with other printers over a wide area. The Nuremberg Chronicle was Koberger?s most successful venture. In the year 1493, two editions, one in Latin and one in German, appeared. These editions must have been large ; over a hundred copies are now owned in America, four hundred and fifty years after they were issued." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "This work, On Duty, (De Officiis) was addressed to Cicero?s son Marcus in the year 43 B.C. In it Cicero gives his viewpoints on many philosophical and ethical questions which center mainly around the theme borrowed from the Stoics. "Man must be virtuous in order to be happy". Like many wealthy Romans, Cicero had sent his son to study philosophy in Athens under the philosopher Cratippus. From Cicero?s famous letter, we learn that he exchanged books with Cleopatra, who was in Rome when this text was written. We wonder whether she received a copy of the De Officiis and, if she did, whether she read it. Cicero?s diction and style established Latin as a vehicle for great prose. This work has a distinction of being the first classical book that appeared in print. In the year 1469, John of Spire and his brother Wendelin, Germans from Rhenish, Bavaria, were well established and encouraged by the city senate of Venice to establish themselves as the first printers in that city and were given an exclusive five year privilege. When John died the following year from the plague, the senate decided that the grant or "patent" given to the brothers had lapsed. Wendelin, however, continued to print four or five years longer, until competition forced him into bankruptcy. Venice soon became the printing center of Europe; before 1480, more than fifty printing establishment were in operation. Daniel Berkeley Updike states that the two brothers, John and Wendelin, made and used the first truly Roman type. It is also thought by some scholars of printing history that Nicolas Jenson worked for the de Spires in the year 1469. It is possible that he really was the creator of the first type used by this press." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Milton's brilliant and profound mind, which illuminated so many aspects of life in one of the most important of eras, the seventeenth century, still challenges us today, three centuries later, in our struggle for human and individual liberty. To deep thought Milton added consummate art. Milton's position as the "greatest" pamphleteer and as the author of the "greatest" ode in the English language, the "supreme" monody, and the "mightiest" sonnet in any language, is rarely questioned. Dr. Johnson once commented, "Milton, madam, has a genius that could cut a colossus from a rock, but could not carve heads on a cherry stone." Paradise Lost is generally conceded to be Milton's greatest work, but he himself, as well as Coleridge and Wordsworth, considered Paradise Regained to be his masterpiece. This work was published in 1671, four years after Paradise Lost, upon which he had spent at least twenty years. It is not a sequel to other. The text is concerned with St. Luke's account of the temptation of Christ and is written in less ornate and figurative language than was used in Paradise Lost. The poem Samson Agonistes is memorable for the fusion of a Semitic theme, Greek tragic manner and matchless English verse. In 1900, Cobden Sanderson, the mystic, established the Doves Press. His books were, according to his own words, "...to be symbols of a vision of Cosmic Order, Order wrought in Rhythm and touched with Beauty and Delight." He wished "...to print in suitable form some of the great literary achievements of man's creative and constructive genius." The Roman type of Jenson was the model for the Dove Press. Pollard calls it the finest roman type in existence. Ransom, commenting on the Doves Press books, states, "They approach dangerously near to absolute perfection in composition, presswork, and page placement." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more".Virgil was the national poet of Augustan Rome. Under the patronage of rich and powerful Maecenas he was enabled to live the tranquil and secluded life which so well fitted into his own ideals and temperament. In 37 B.C. he finished the Bucolica, which idealizes the farm life which he knew and loved so well in his youth. His second great work was the Georgica, a didactic, realistic poem. Both were written to make farm life in the country so attractive that a migration would start from the city. In the later period Virgil wrote his epic, the Aeneid, to glorify Rome and its rulers. This work bears a close relationship to the writings of Homer. Virgil in these poems assumes the tone of the prophet: 'Rome has equally a mission to fulfill, which is to establish peace and order, and to rule the world through law. ' Virgil excels, in all his writings, in 'that subtle fusion of the music and the meaning of language which touches the deepest and most secret springs of emotion'. His influence on Dante, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Tennyson is clearly evident. Dante selected Virgil to represent human wisdom and to act his own guide through the Inferno" (Ege, Otto F.) "In the year 1750, John Baskerville decided to print, as an avocation, '?.books of consequences ?.and which the public may be pleased to see in an elegant dress and to purchase at such a price as will pay the extraordinary care and expense that must necessarily be bestowed upon them'. Seven years later his publication, this 'Virgil', appeared. According to Macaulay, it 'went forth to astonish all the librarians of Europe'. The type of the day was modernized, the press improved, the paper 'woven' instead of 'laid' (a radical departure), and the freshly printed sheets were pressed between hot plates to 'glaze', thus giving such 'perfect polish that we could suppose the paper made of silk rather than a linen'." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"James Thomson, like Virgil, with leisure assured by patrons and political pension, had unusual opportunities to observe nature and to write and rewrite his poems. The various parts of The Seasons first appeared between the years 1726 and 1730 and in their final polished form in 1744. With their swelling phrases and Latinized diction, these poems of Thomson are superficially Miltonic. Dr. Johnson wrote of Thomson, "The reader of The Seasons wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shows hum that he never felt what Thomson impresses". Today we still enjoy the sensitiveness to light and movement, the ultimate knowledge of the ways of animals and birds, and the ability of Thomson in his Seasons to lure us from a real world to imaginative reverie. With a subtle appreciation of quiet rural life is coupled a conception of a God in nature, as well as an unquestioning in the God of orthodox Christianity, and there is also an apparently unrelated enthusiasm for economic progress in Britain. "It seems paradoxical that Bodoni, the founder of "classic" formalism in printing, chose to print Thomson's romantic Seasons in sumptuous format and to include the following in the dedication to his patron, David Steuart, of Edinburgh: "If I particularly wish immortality to any of my works it is to this, that the testimony of my respect and gratitude for a person of so much worth and eminence may be handed down to future ages". Bodoni is often called "The King of Typographers and the Typographer of Kings". According to Peddie, Bodoni "incontestably represents the highest point of aestheticism that can be reached by typography." (Ege, Otto F.)
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