(FANFROLICO PRESS). HOMER.

HOMER'S HYMNS TO APHRODITE.

([London]: Fanfrolico Press, [1929]). 267 x 203 mm (10 1/2 x 8"). 2 p.l., [9] leaves. Translated by Jack Lindsay. ONE OF 500 COPIES.

Black cloth, gilt titling on spine, cream-colored inset in low relief on cover of the Aphrodite of Melos, edges untrimmed. Illustrated title page and four plates of ancient statues of Aphrodite. Tiny snag at top of front joint, bas-relief slightly abraded, front board slightly soiled, otherwise very fine, quite lovely internally.

Founded in Australia by Jack Lindsay and John Kirtley in 1923 and continued from 1926-30 in London, the Fanfrolico Press produced "an impressive list of books, . . . many of them edited by Lindsay." In addition to several translations of the classics, the press "also printed a number of editions of English literature, which were well worth producing. . . . The influence of the Nonesuch Press was considerable in Fanfrolico's deliberate adoption of the mode of the 16th century scholar-printers, who themselves edited the texts they published." (Cave) For the present item, Lindsay has added his own poetical prelude and epilogue to the translation from the Greek of the "Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite," which, although not by the author of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," does go back to the archaic period and is a charming invocation of the goddess of love and description of her amour with Anchises, father of Aeneas. (STCMa9439-2z)