Shakespeares Venus and Adonis. Being a Reproduction in Facsimile of the First Edition, 1593
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.
Shakespeares Venus and Adonis. Being a Reproduction in Facsimile of the First Edition, 1593
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. First Thus. Number 229 of 1000 copies bound and signed by the bibliographer Sydney Lee. Full vellum with gilt to spines and boards, measuring 250 x 200mm. Boards splayed, with front and rear ties lacking. Offsetting to front and rear pastedowns. Internally clean and unmarked, with illustrations and text from the Malone Collection of the Bodleian Library.
Originally issued in a set of five volumes, reproducing the exceptional Malone Collection copies of Shakespeare's first editions. "With Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare launched his career as a poet. The poem is a minor epic, a genre that many poets of the time chose for their first efforts...within this genre, Venus and Adonis was so successful that it remained Shakespeare's most popular published work throughout his lifetime" (Folger). (Item #4721)
