{"product_id":"virgil-s-georgics-from-the-library-of-craig-kallendorf","title":"Virgil’s Georgics in Contemporary French Calf from the Library of Craig Kallendorf","description":"\u003ch3\u003eJacques Delille’s Celebrated French Virgil from the Library of Craig W. Kallendorf\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVIRGIL. \u003cem\u003eLes Géorgiques de Virgile, traduction nouvelle en vers français.\u003c\/em\u003e Translated by Jacques Delille. Paris: Claude Bleuet, 1771.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn elegant early Paris edition of Jacques Delille’s celebrated French verse translation of Virgil’s \u003cem\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/em\u003e, preserved in attractive contemporary mottled calf and carrying the provenance of the distinguished Virgil scholar and bibliographer Craig W. Kallendorf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinted by Claude Bleuet in 1771 during the first wave of Delille’s enormous literary success, the present volume belongs to the immediate publication history of one of the most influential French translations of classical poetry in the eighteenth century. Combining classical scholarship, Enlightenment literary taste, refined illustration, and handsome contemporary binding, it is an especially appealing survival of the French Virgilian tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVirgil and the French Enlightenment\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVirgil’s \u003cem\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/em\u003e occupied a uniquely prestigious position within eighteenth-century French literary culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart agricultural poem, part philosophical meditation on labour, landscape, civilization, and seasonal order, the work appealed profoundly to Enlightenment readers fascinated by harmony, cultivation, and the ideal of refined rural life. Jacques Delille’s translation transformed Virgil into polished French neoclassical verse while preserving the dignity and didactic seriousness of the original poem.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe translation quickly became one of the defining French renderings of antiquity and helped establish Delille as one of the great literary figures of his generation. Through editions such as the present one, Virgil entered the libraries of cultivated eighteenth-century readers not merely as a classical author, but as a living literary presence within French intellectual life itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Early 1771 Reset\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present volume belongs to the important early octavo reset issued in 1771.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile distinct from the unmixed grand papier first issue of 1770, the edition remains closely connected to the initial reception of Delille’s translation and preserves the work in a more compact and highly readable format intended for cultivated private reading and scholarly use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe typography is especially elegant. The Latin original appears together with Delille’s French verse translation and notes, printed in double columns with clear and balanced page design characteristic of refined late eighteenth-century French classical printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCharles Eisen and the Illustrations\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume is illustrated with three full-page engraved plates after Charles Eisen, engraved by Joseph de Longueil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEisen ranks among the most important French illustrators of the rococo period and one of the defining artists of eighteenth-century book illustration. His Virgilian scenes translate classical pastoral poetry into the elegant visual language of ancien-régime France, combining idealized rural life with decorative grace and classical serenity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plates in the present copy remain crisp and attractive, complementing the generous margins and clean typographic presentation of the edition itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome bibliographical descriptions of Delille’s illustrated \u003cem\u003eGéorgiques\u003c\/em\u003e call for four Eisen plates together with a frontispiece after Casanova. The present copy is offered as a three-plate copy, with the printed text itself complete.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCraig W. Kallendorf\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe provenance of the volume gives it particular scholarly interest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe copy comes from the library of Craig W. Kallendorf, among the most important modern scholars of Virgil and compiler of the standard bibliographic census of early printed Virgil editions. His work fundamentally reshaped the study of Virgil’s reception across Renaissance and early modern Europe, linking classical philology, bibliography, intellectual history, and book culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKallendorf recorded the edition in his bibliography as entry FG1770.6, and his personal bookplate remains present on the front pastedown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe association transforms the volume from an attractive eighteenth-century Virgil into a copy directly connected to one of the major modern scholars of classical reception and bibliography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBinding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemporary mottled calf with five raised bands, gilt floral tooling to the spine compartments, red morocco lettering-piece, and sprinkled edges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe binding remains particularly attractive and well suited to the refined neoclassical character of the text: elegant, compact, and unmistakably French in aesthetic sensibility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBinding sound and attractive overall, with light crackling at the joints, minor rubbing to extremities, and a tiny chip at the headcap. The text block remains tight and clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInternally bright with generous margins, light even toning, and only occasional faint foxing, primarily to the preliminary leaves. The engraved plates remain crisp and well preserved. No writing, dampstaining, tears, or missing text leaves observed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA handsome and scholarly eighteenth-century Virgil combining Delille’s influential French translation, Eisen’s elegant engravings, contemporary French calf, and the provenance of Craig W. Kallendorf.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46862879064252,"sku":null,"price":250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/virgil-kallendorf-1.png?v=1779587854","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/virgil-s-georgics-from-the-library-of-craig-kallendorf","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}