Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Astronomer-Poet of Persia. Rendered into English Verse

Stratford-Upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1926. Near fine. Thomas Lowinsky. Crown 8vo, 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.(180 x 132 mm); vii + 137 pp. 3/4 red morocco binding by Zaehnsdorf, London [stamped on bottom left of first free flyleaf], marbled boards with matching end-papers, gilt titling between two raised bands, t.e.g. Gentle wear to hinges. Printed in black and with red ink text and decorations on half- and title pages and colophon. Light foxing on endpapers and half-title page. Slight toning to inside pages. Previous owner's ink inscription "D.M. from Wing Commander Whittaker." This is no. 6 of Shakespeare Head Press' Quartos series.
[Potter 123]. This elegant little edition is prefaced with a lengthy "Bibliographical Note" which tells the "story of the writing and printing of 'Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.'" The manuscript was discovered by E. Cowell, a colleague of Fitzgerald, in the Bodleian, one of the oldest in existence, dated from Shiraz A.H.865 (A.D.1460, some 337 years after the death of Omar), "beautifully written in purplish ink on thick yellow vellum and powdered with gold." The note goes on to talk of the various (amended) editions by Bernard Quarich, starting in 1859, and stating that "The versions grew successively poorer under revision." This edition uses the first translation by Fitzgerald.

OMAR KHAYYÁM (1048 - 1131) was a Persian, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. Born in northeastern Persia around the time of the First Crusade, his poetry in quatrains became wildly popular during the Orientalist craze of fin-de-siècle Europe, with several verse and prose translations in English, French, German, and Russian being published starting with Edward FitzGerald in 1859: "Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia.