De Rerum Natura. by LUCRETIUS - 1712: Ad optimorum exemplarium fidem recensiti. Accesserunt varil?ectiones, quin Libris Mss. & Eruditorum commentariis notatu digniores occurrunt.

London: Jacob Tonson,, 1712. A handsome edition of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things First Tonson edition, a particularly handsome and well-illustrated edition of the Latin text of Lucretius' radical work On the Nature of Things, the famous philosophical poem written to explain Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience in the 1st century BCE. The set of engravings is possibly the first to take direct inspiration from the Epicurean scenes described in the text, such as the Triumph of the Great Mother and the Plague of Athens. The engravings inspired several later artists, such as Eisen, Cochin, and the other engravers who illustrated Marchetti's famous Italian translation of 1754. Quarto (287 x 218 mm). Contemporary calf, green morocco label, richly gilt in comparments, gilt foliate border to covers, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Engraved frontispiece, 6 engraved plates one of which is folding, engraved head- and tailpieces. Bookplate of Thomas de Gray, Esq, and notation to initial blank "Ex Dono G. Ophaly - Eton: alum: 1764" (George, Lord Ophaly, then sixteen, who would die the following year of consumption). Shelf stamp to front free endpaper verso. Expert restoration to spine and joint ends, contents clean and crisp, short closed tear at head of plate facing p. 175; an excellent copy. ESTC T50367; Gordon 502.