Marco Anneo Lucano - Pharsalia - 1721

This splendid eighteenth-century edition of Pharsalia (or De Bello Civili) by Marcus Annaeus Lucanus represents a perfect example of learned publishing produced by the illustrious Typographia del Seminario di Padova in 1721, under license to the bookseller-publisher Giovanni Manfrè. The volume collects the famous epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, enriched in the margins with the authoritative philological notes by Thomas Farnaby and adorned in the appendix with the commentaries of Hugo Grotius.

The copy is distinguished by a refined contemporary half-dark leather binding with boards covered in marbled paper in an "eye of the cat" pattern in beige, yellow, and black tones, finely echoed in the bright edges of a vivid sulfur yellow and in the inner doublures decorated with peacock motifs in pink, green, and blue. The spine, smooth with small nerves simulated by gold fillets, is embellished by a double leather patch: an upper red morocco bearing the title in gilded lettering and a lower green leather, alternated with elegant gold floral engravings punched to give the volume a typically neoclassical appearance. The overall state of preservation is excellent, showing only a natural patina of time, minimal abrasions at the tips and marginal traces of foxing and humidity on the initial and final leaves that do not compromise the solidity of the binding nor the extraordinary freshness of the high‑grammage paper.

The iconographic value of the text is inaugurated by a magnificent title page entirely copper-engraved by Giuseppe Abbiati, depicting in the foreground a dramatic scene of a Roman military clash under the stern gaze of a commander in armor, crowned at the top by an imperial eagle that holds a standard bearing the historical data of the work. The text is set according to the canons of the great Venetian philological tradition, with Lucan’s verses arranged in two parallel columns, surrounded by explanatory notes in smaller type and accompanied by a prestigious initial dedication letter addressed to the noble knight Francesco Stuart.

Excellent state of preservation, complete with the critical apparatus and the original binding with the colored edges."