M. Bitaubé - L'Iliade d'Homere - 1787

Set of 5 in-16 volumes (out of 6, the last one missing for a complete Iliad) in a period binding stamped for each volume with a curious inscription: 'Museum, emulation prize for the Greek language.'

This is the translation of Homer’s Iliad (late 8th century BC) by the pastor and Hellenist Paul‑Jérémie Bitaubé (1732–1808), published in Paris by the royal printer-bookseller Didot l’Aîné (1730–1789), a major figure of neoclassical publishing. This encounter between a foundational text of Greek antiquity and the most refined typographic aesthetics of the late 18th century places the copy at the heart of the literary tastes of the late Enlightenment, where Homer becomes a model for epic poetry, heroic morality, and the education of elites. Bitaubé, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles-Lettres of Berlin, belongs to this generation of translator-philologists who aimed to make Homer readable to the cultivated French public, reconciling fidelity to Greek with classical clarity.

Decorated copy with a portrait of Bitaubé engraved by Saint-Aubin after Cochin, and two folded plates in volume V reproducing the heraldic shield of Achilles. The airy layout is pleasant, and the typography is remarkable. The copy is bound in marbled basane with a smooth decorated spine, a gold corner piece on the splats within a double gold fillet frame, gilded edges, marbled endpapers, and bookmarks.

The overall condition is average because the last volume is missing, the covers are worn, the leather is slightly scuffed, there are three small leather losses on the spines, one stitch on a spine, a mark on the margin of two pages (see specific photo), and other minor defects.