£95
INSCRIBED BY THE TRANSLATOR, WITH ALS, 8vo, pp. xlvii, [i], 236, [4], 4. Original dark grey boards backed in dark grey paper. A touch of spotting. Boards a little marked and spotted, bumped and a little worn to extremities, neatly rebacked to style with printed paper label. Inscribed ‘from the author’ to flyleaf, double-page ALS signed J.W. Donaldson tipped in beneath inscription, armorial bookplate of Thomas Gaisford to pastedown.
The first edition of Donaldson's edition of this tragedy by Sophocles, with a letter from Donaldson tipped-in. Donaldson (1811-1861) was headmaster of King Edward's School in Bury St Edmunds between 1841 and 1855 but is best remembered for his philological studies of Greek and his unorthodox attempts to reconstruct the Book of Jashar from traces supposed to be preserved in more canonical Old Testament scripture. This copy has been presented by Donaldson to Thomas Gaisford (1779-1855), dean of Christ Church, whose bookplate faces the letter in the front of the book.
