CAESAR, Caius Julius, HIRTIUS, Aulius; COUSTELLIER, A. U., (ed.) C. Jullii Ceasari quae extant opera. Commentariorum de bello gallico, libri septem.
Paris, Joseph Barbou, 1755.
£ 2,250
12mo, 2 vols. Vol. 1: frontispiece, half-title and title page: pp. xxvii, 360; 2 fold-out maps. Vol. 2: half-title and title page: pp. 455 (1); 2 fold-out maps; publisher’s catalogue. Fine, crisp volumes bound in burgundy morocco, with elaborately gilt-tooled foliated designs stamped in gilt on spines and covers, gilt dentelles, labels in green morocco (slight loss to head of spine in vol. 2), blue silk endpapers, a.e.g. A lovely binding. Ownership medallions of James Hartmann glued on the recto of first front flyleaf in both volumes. Hartmann was a C19th English book collector, especially of French editions. This work later entered in the Silke-Montague collection, as shown by stamps.
Barbou’s elegant edition of Caesar’s commentaries, with supplements by his general Aulus Hirtius. This was part of a library of the classics prepared for this publisher by A.U. Coustellier: the catalogue as of 1755 is found at the end of the second volume here. For the aid of the book-collector, a list of editions of Caesar from the first (Rome 1469, now Goff C16) is added to the works.