London: Macmillan, 1906. Fifth edition. Later issue. A Fine copy. Octavo (7 3/4 x 5 /14 inches; 197 x 133 mm.). [iv], [1]-112 pp. Bound ca. 1906 by [Riviére] for Hatchards (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in). Full purple morocco, covers paneled in gilt, front cover elaborately decorated in gilt in an 'art nouveau' style with fifty-six tiny inlaid red morocco circles, rear cover with four tiny inlaid red morocco circles, spine with five raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

Fitzgerald attributed the original work to the famed astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyum, and this collection of quatrains rapidly became a favored text of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Like the Odyssey or the Vita Nuova [it] was once the most widely known and quoted work of Victorian poetry in the world," and its place in Western culture at the time was secured by Fitzgerald's "epigrammatic, sophisticated, often mordant verses [that] display Fitzgerald's adroitness in handling this stanza form" (Warner). Yet with rise of Modernism, the Rubaiyat fell out of style for a time, its lush and romantic orientalism considered out of step with the concerns of those who were living through a devastating World War. But the beautiful surviving copies in exceptional vellum, silk, and leather, alongside recently released critical editions, have helped draw attention back to the Rubaiyat's beauty and its role in inspiring so many monumental pieces of Victorian art and literature. This fifth edition of Fitzgerald's text, published posthumously, contained some changes from the fourth and was based on his manuscript notations. Fine (Item #6420)