THE FRAGMENTS OF PARMENIDES; [Limited edition -- the only edition]

Berkeley, CA: Editions Koch, 2003. First edition, and only edition. Bringhurst's translations from the Ancient Greek of surviving fragments of the circa 475 BC poem generally titled "On Nature" written by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, Parmenides of Elea. ONE OF 26 COPIES in the "Deluxe" issue SIGNED BY BRINGHURST, WAGENER & KOCH, bound in full leather, and with a separate suite of 10 signed engravings. From an edition of ONLY 146 COPIES TOTAL. This copy ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED BY BRINGHURST on the colophon,"for Allen Mears, the kind of reader / Parmenides has waited for / 17.1.2004." Folio, blind-stamped full black leather; approximately 50 unnumbered pages with original Greek and English translations on opposing pages; illustrated with black-and-white frontis engraving and 4 full-page color engravings. With separate SUITE OF TEN WOOD ENGRAVINGS, EACH SIGNED BY WAGENER, laid in an orange silk-covered chemise; and 2 broadside type specimens for the typefaces specially made for this edition by Dan Carr and Christopher Stinehour. The book, suite of engravings, and broadsides are housed together in publisher's orange silk-covered "drop-back" box. Also includes the prospectus in original envelope, 4-page "Key to the Specimen of the Parmenides Type," and a copy of the companion volume, CARVING THE ELEMENTS (Berkeley: 2004), featuring essays from each of the book's contributors that document the 10-year history behind the making of the book. NO TRADE EDITION ISSUED - only these 26 deluxe copies in full leather with the extra suite of engravings and type specimens housed in a special box and 120 numbered copies in quarter leather with clamshell case, 20 of which were reserved for the contributors. ALSO INCLUDES collector Allen Mears' extensive file of ephemera and correspondence related to the project, including LETTERS SIGNED BY BRINGHURST (3), KOCH (2), and WAGENER (1) and printouts of email correspondence with each as well as various others. (See pictures for an overview of the contents of the file). With nearly 1/3 of the copies in libraries per OCLC and given the small number printed, not to mention the 20 copies to the contributors, it is understandable that this remarkable production is scarce to rare on the market. Altogether fine condition.