Homer - Homeri Ilias - 1804-1840

Two Book Packages of Homer's Iliad:

Lot 1: Homer – Homeri Ilias (Edition of 1804)

• Title: Homer – Homeri Ilias (Pars I & Pars II in one volume) – Academic edition by G. J. Göschen – 1804

• Author: Homer (edited under the renowned recension of Friedrich August Wolf).
• Publisher / Printer: Lipsiae (Leipzig), Apud Bibliopolam G. J. Göschen.
• Publication year: 1804
• Collation / Page count: 421 pages, 2 copper engravings (complete).
• Format: 18 x 13 cm (octavo).
• Language: Greek original text with Latin prefaces.

Description / Theme:

Very rare and bibliophilic significant scholarly edition of the Iliad by Homer, printed by the famous classical publisher Georg Joachim Göschen in Leipzig. This edition was specifically issued for “In usum scholarum” (for advanced school and university use).

The special highlight of this exemplar are the two beautiful, detailed copper engravings (frontispieces):

1. Part I: Classical portrait of Homer (OMHROS).
2. Part II: Profile portrait of the Trojan hero Hector (EKTOR).

Binding and condition:
• Binding: Historic half-leather binding with mounted spine label. On the covers there is a rare embossed academic supralibros plaque (school prize coat of arms) with the gold inscription "Praemium Il. Schol. Provinc...". Spine with genuine cords.

• Condition: Aged but worn / bumped (more pronounced signs of use after over 220 years). The leather and paper boards show noticeable rubbing and material loss at the corners and edges. The leather spine is stable, though it has small cracks at the joints and bears an old library inventory number (label “30”) at the foot. The interior is solid; the paper shows the characteristic foxing of the period, but the text and the two engravings are clean and legible.

Lot 2: Homer – Homeri Ilias. Explained by G. Ch. Crusius (1840 edition)

• Title: Homer – Homeri Ilias. For school use explained by Gottlieb Christian Crusius – First Part (Cantica I–IV) – 1840

• Author / Commentator: Homer / Gottlieb Christian Crusius (with critical notes and references to J. H. Voss’s translation).
• Publisher: Hanover, at the Hahn’schen Hofbuchhandlung publishing house.
• Publication year: 1840
• Collation / Page count: 156 pages (First Part).
• Format: 22 x 14 cm
• Language: Greek original text with extensive, continuous explanations and footnotes in German (Fraktur type).

Description / Theme:

Important philological work of the 19th century for the critical study of the Greek antiquity. This concerns the specific “First Part” (Primer Cuaderno), which contains cantos 1–4 of the Iliad and was comprehensively commented on by the renowned classical philologist Gottlieb Christian Crusius.
For bibliographic context of the complete work:
Crusius’s large project for schools divided the entire 24 cantos of the Iliad into several separately published parts:
• First Part (Cantos 1–4): 156 pages (this copy)
• Second Part (Cantos 5–8): 147 pages
• Third Part (Cantos 9–12): 131 pages (and further volumes for the remaining cantos).
Each page presents the Greek original text at the top and a thorough grammatical and mythological commentary in German at the bottom.

Binding and condition:

• Binding: Contemporary half-leather binding with marbled boards.

• Condition:
The binding is solid, all pages of the first part are intact and readable without text loss.