Opera.

Paris: Firmin Didot,, 1855. The marvel of our century First edition, deluxe issue, of Didot's pocket Horace, illustrated with "some of the earliest photographs used in book-illustration" (Williams, p. 19). The handsome binding is by Alfred Mame & Fils, leading French publishing and bookbinding company of Tours. In the address to the reader, the editor refers to photography as "the marvel of our century" (p. iv). This was the earliest of three photographically illustrated editions of the classics by Didot, the others being Virgil and Anacreon. It includes six photographic reproductions of paintings depicting the localities mentioned by Horace in his works and two engraved maps. There are also eleven photographic prints of drawings by the French painter Félix-Joseph Barrias (1822-1907), Degas's teacher. Born to a renown family of French printers, Firmin Didot (1764-1836) was "the greatest typographer" (Williams, p. 118) of the family, appointed director of the Imprimerie Impériale typefoundry by Napoleon, and inventor of the term "stereotype". This edition of Horace has been described as a typographic milestone, and praised for the clarity of its minuscule types, particularly the one employed in the address to the reader, cast by Laurent & De Berny. The lowercase letters of this type measure less than a millimetre in height. Several versions of this work are known, with a variable number of illustrations. This copy matches the descriptions for the deluxe issue given by both Brunet and Rosens, with the text bordered in red and 19 illustrations in total. Small octavo (135 x 79 mm). Contemporary red morocco, spine with four raised bands, compartments and covers ruled in gilt and decorated with black and purple onlay designs, board edges and turn-ins richly gilt, marbled doublures and endpapers, edges gilt, yellow, pink, and green silk bookmarker. With 17 mounted albumen prints (including 7 plates and 10 head-pieces), 2 double-page engraved maps. Title page and plates within elaborate engraved border, text framed in red throughout. Verso of front free endpaper with bookplate of the French collector Paul Eudel (1837-1911); initial blank with previous bookseller's printed description on recto, 19th-century bookplate of French collector Édouard Massicot on verso. Occasional spot of foxing to contents, some photographs slightly yellowed, otherwise clean; an excellent copy, attractively bound. Brunet III, 325; Rosens 5139. Robert Williams, Pageant of Printing in Picture and Prose, 1938.