A meeting of three masters: Homer, Pope, and the twentieth century's finest typographer. Pope's Iliad (1715–20) is the supreme English Homer of the Augustan age — the version of which Bentley famously said, "it is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer." Here it is given monumental form by Jan van Krimpen and the Enschedé foundry, whose types and page architecture set the standard for modern fine printing.

The signed colophon makes this a designer's copy of one of the Limited Editions Club's most admired productions. Pope's Iliad, issued to subscribers volume by volume between 1715 and 1720, earned him something on the order of four to five thousand guineas — a sum that made him the first English poet able to live independently on the proceeds of his pen [Maynard Mack, Alexander Pope: A Life, 1985].

Quarto, gold-stamped red linen. Translated and introduced by Alexander Pope; note on the translation by Carl Van Doren.

Very good or better: slight bumps to the ends of a lightly sunned spine, some soiling to the cloth, hinges just starting; fine internally.