A comedy of Terence called Andria translated into English by Richard Bernard with twenty-five illustrations by Albrecht Dürer.

OFFICINA BODONI. ; TERENTIUS AFER (1971.)

£950.00 

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Text edited by Betty Radice, postscript by Giovanni Mardersteig. One of 160 numbered copies of a total edition of 170. 25 illustrations newly cut on wood by Fritz Kredel after Albrecht Durer. Folio (34.5cm.) 122, [4]p., Original parchment-backed paper boards. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Verona, Officina Bodoni.

Fine, with three prospectuses inserted.

This beautiful book had a lead-time of a little less than 500 years. The illustrations by Dürer are taken from a group of 132 woodblocks in the Kunstmuseum at Basel, uncut, but with illustrations directly drawn on them. The illustrations were intended for a complete edition of Terence's Comedies to have been printed by Johann Amerbach in Basel. Work on this edition began in 1492, with drawings executed by Dürer and others, but its commercial prospects were crippled by Johann Trechsel of Lyons, who in August 1493 published his complete illustrated Terence. All work on Amerbach's edition stopped, and the blocks remained unpublished in Basel: all the illustrations for Andria were by Dürer, and for this edition were newly recut on wood by the New York artist Fritz Kredel. 

Stock Code: 227169

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