The Brick Row Book Shop

[GREEK & LATIN LITERATURE]. Prescot, Kenrick.

Letters Concerning Homer the Sleeper in Horace: With Additional Classic Amusements.

Place and Imprint: Cambridge: Printed by J. Archdeacon Printer to the University, 1773.
Edition: First edition.
Bibliographical References: ESTC T134568.
Condition: Front blank (the second of two) removed, edges rubbed, but a very good copy of a handsomely printed book.
Book ID: 29126

Physical Description

4to, contemporary sprinkled calf, maroon leather spine label, gilt decorations and lettering.

Comments

17 letters in the form of informal essays on classical subjects, primarily Greek and Roman poets and their work, followed by similar sketches entitled "Classic Amusements." Among other matters, Prescot argues that the Homer referred to by Horace was not that of The Iliad but the Roman poet Quintus Ennius, often considered the father of Roman poetry, and in one "amusement" he traces the Latin sources of lines in Shakespeare, which he appropriately prefaces with a quotation from Henry VIII in reference to its author: “He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.” Kenrick Prescot (1703-1779) was a lifelong Cantabrigian, a Master of St. Catharine's College, and obviously a ripe and good scholar himself.

Sold