Q. Horatius Flaccus, ex recensione & cum notis atque emendationibus Richardi Bentleii. Editio altera Bentley, Richard Classical Literature,Poetry

4to, 2 parts in 1; pp. [22], 442; [2], 443-717, [1], 239, [1]; engraved vignette title page printed in red and black, engraved frontispiece, woodcut initials, sectional title for Pars altera after page 442; contemporary full paneled calf, spine in 7 compartments, maroon morocco label in 1; a very good, sound, and clean copy. The second (and best) Bentley edition of Horace, following the London edition of 1711, an edition more complete and correct than the first, benefiting from the addition of the voluminous 240-page index of Terter as corrected by Verburgius, and the printing of the commentary conveniently on the same page as the text. "Probably no other poet's works have been so often copied or printed, and hundreds of versions in every modern language have been made of the least translatable of poets. Certainly Horace far outstrips all competitors when it comes to pocket editions: all over the world, where the libraries or even the smaller collections of personalia of the great have been preserved, a well-worn pocket Horace is very frequently among them . But one of the most remarkable uses to which Horace has been put is shown in the present edition. In 1711 Bentley was fighting against the angry fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, who were petitioning the College Visitor, the Bishop of Ely, to remove him from the Mastership. Bentley wished to enlist the support of the Crown (which appoints the Master), and he did it - by dedicating his edition of Horace to Harley, then Prime Minister. "Bentley (1662-1742) was and remains the greatest of English classical scholars. His reputation was made by his Dissertation on Phalaris, the final crushing blow in the 'Battle of the Books.' His immense learning was combined with an equal control in its deployment. Although he here restricted himself entirely to criticism of the text, and refrained from comment or explanation, in fact his feeling for Horace is revealed in the seven or eight hundred emendations, many of which have found permanent acceptance. Bold yet sensitive, deeply learned and at the same time understanding, his edition is a compound, as Bentley was himself, of temerity, authority and subtlety" (PMM). Mills College Check List, 430; Riedel-Horatiana A-140; Dibdin, Greek and Latin Classics (4th ed.) II, pp. 101-105; Printing and the Mind of Man, 178.