RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM; AND THE SALAMAN AND ABSAL OF JAMI RENDERED INTO ENGLISH VERSE

London: Bernard Quaritch, 1879. Fourth Edition. 178 x 133 mm. (7 x 5 1/4"). 2 p.l., xv, [1], 112 pp.Translated by Edward FitzGerald.
LOVELY HIGHLY ORNAMENTED GREEN MOROCCO BY ZAEHNSDORF (signed on front pastedown, and with oval stamp at rear), COVERS VERY ELABORATELY GILT WITH AN ALL-OVER PATTERN OF ELEGANT ARCHING TENDRILS, LEAVES, AND FLOWERS, the covers bordered with scalloped, dotted, and plain rules enclosing a fine scrolling floral and foliate frame, and this frame around a large central panel with four vertical rows of floral and foliate tools on scrolling tendrils, flat spine similarly decorated and with titling and date, inner gilt dentelles repeating the scrolling floral and foliate frame from the covers, yellow silk endpapers, all edges gilt. Frontispiece after a Persian miniature, tailpieces, text borders with floral ornaments at corners. Second blank with ink note tipped in, describing binding and provenance (see below). Potter 141; Paas 3841. ◆Spine uniformly faded to a caramel color, faint fading to edges of boards, joints significantly rubbed (though with no cracking, and the rubbing well masked with dye), otherwise an extremely attractive copy, internally flawless, and the wonderful covers in fine, bright condition.

In addition to containing the famous Rubaiyat, with its lush and evocative verses tinged with a sense of the vanity of all things, this exceedingly pretty volume includes the "Salaman and Absal," a narrative poem in which the hero, rejecting the snare of the senses personified by the lovely Absal, moves on the path toward Sufi enlightenment, with much exotic and picturesque detail along the way. The Translations of these two Persian poets, Omar Khayyam (d. 1123) and Jami (15th century), were done by FitzGerald (1809-93), whose entire adult life was devoted to literature, especially translation, and whose chief work is this immensely popular English version of the Rubaiyat, first published (anonymously) in 1859. The binding here represents a level of achievement and sense of ordered animation synonymous with the London-based firm of Zaehnsdorf. The tipped-in note at the front says on the verso that the book comes from the library of Robert S. Williams, and on the recto that the book was "bound for Mr. Bartlett, the gilding being copied from a piece of Persian silk designed and made by William Morris.".