The Brothers; A Roman Comedy, 160 B.C. by Terence; Durer, Albrecht (Illustrations) - 1968

Kentfield, California: The Allen Press, 1968. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Durer, Albrecht. One of 140 copies, folio size, [34] leaves unnumbered, with original prospectus folded in original hand-addresed mailing envelope. The thirty-second limited edition from The Allen Press, and the first printed on their 1846 Columbian handpress. Terence (circa 195 - 159 B.C.) was and has remained a popular playwright, "The Brothers" considered to be one of his greatest plays, being "not only a delightful and clever comedy, but also a fine study of human nature. Proof of the timelessness of Terence's genius lies in the fact that over 400 manuscripts of his plays survive today, and many of his plots have been purloined by successive generations of playwrights." This is the first edition of "The Brothers" illustrated by Durer. "Although there were about forty Terence editions previous to 1500, humanist scholars strongly objected to illustrations for the classics. So it was not until 1493 that the first was issued: 150 woodcuts in the edition printed by Johann Treschel at Lyon, France.

It is one of the most beautiful illustrated books of the fifteenth-century; but its editor, Johann Badius, tried to soften the innovation by declaring that the pictures were added to assist the illiterate." The coincidence which made the present edition possible, is that "Johann Amerbach of Basel, unaware that the Treschel edition was underway, began a similar edition by commissioning the young genius Albrecht Durer, at age 20, to design 150 illustrative woodcuts, one for every scene of the drama. However, when the drawings were completed, but only a few blocks cut, the Lyon edition appeared and the Basel project abandoned." Durer's work survived and is preserved at the Kunstmuseum, Basel, where Lewis and Dorothy Allen first studied the (mostly ink drawings of white-grounded wood blocks) work in 1965. The director of the museum generously provided them with permission to reproduce the drawings and provided high resolution photos. George Lewis "photographically eliminated" the considerable erosion, worm holes and mildew, and metal plates were made of the twenty-seven illustrations for this edition, "their first book use."

___DESCRIPTION: Quarter decorative German woven fabric and sienna-brown all-rag Italian paper covered boards with a pictorial title to the upper board, teal endpapers, fore- and tail-edges uncut, pictorial title-page printed in black, woodcut heads are printed in brown, chapter numbers are printed in blue-green throughout, with twenty-seven illustrations based on Durer drawings, used here for the first time as book illustrations for a Terence play; hand-set Unciala type (the first appearance in an American book), all-rag paper made at the Wookey Hole mill in England, to the specifications of the press, with their watermark, folio size (13.25" by 8 7/8"), [34] unnumbered leaves, limited edition, one of 140 copies. With prospectus folded in original hand-addressed mailing envelope, in a matching paper slipcase.

___CONDITION: A fine copy; the binding clean and unrubbed, the binding tight with solid hinges, the interior clean and bright, and free of prior owner markings; clean, crisp, as new. The slipcase also fine, strong and sturdy, clean overall with the hint of a stray mark or two, without wear; the prospectus fine with only original folds, its original mailing envelope near fine, some light dustiness, a hand-written notation on the back "ordered 3/16/68".

___CITATION: The Allen Press Bibliography, no.32.

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