£500
FIRST EDITION, 4to, pp. xxviii, [8], 519, [1]. Contemporary sprinked calf, spine gilt in compartments. Lightly toned and offset, a few light marginal stains, first few leaves foxed. Rebacked and recornered in a lighter shade of leather (but preserving original backstrip), somewhat rubbed and scratched, spine ends worn, a small wormtrack to inside of front board and flyleaves.
This translation by the Norfolk clergyman Robert Potter marks the first complete English-language version of the surviving plays of Aeschylus, who had been largely neglected in English until that point (the first published translation of any individual play appeared only in 1773). Potter's work 'was published to great acclaim in 1777 and brought him to the notice of London literary society' (ODNB); a London edition followed within two years of this first printing, and Potter's translations were still being reprinted as a standard version as late as 1938.
