In
Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries
Homer
[Tes
tou Homerous Iliados ho tomos proteros (-dueteros)].
Glasguae: In Aedibus
Academicis, Excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis, Academia Typographi,
1756.
This edition of The
Iliad, along with the The Odyssey (published two years later)
stand as landmarks in the history of the printing of Greek. They
were published by Andrew and Robert Foulis, printers to the University
of Glasgow. The Foulis Press long enjoyed a well-deserved reputation
for excellence both in textual accuracy and typographic beauty.
This Homer received the Edinburgh Select Society’s medal
for the best printed Greek book; in 1757 The Scots Magazine noted
that the Foulis brothers had ‘gained all the prizes yet
given by this society for book-printing.’ The handsome type,
outstanding in its clarity and elegance, was designed by Alexander
Wilson (1714-1786), a Scottish doctor, astronomer, and typefounder,
who had established a typefoundry in Glasgow in 1744.
Both epics were edited
by Professors James Moor (1712-1779) and George Muirhead (1715-1773),
professors at Glasgow University. These volumes are much-admired
for their beauty and accuracy and stand as one of the finest printing
achievements of the eighteenth century.
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