Difference between revisions of "Idylliums of Theocritus"

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by Theocritus

The Idylliums of Theocritus
Title page from The Idylliums of Theocritus, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Theocritus
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	London: Printed for the author by D. Leach and sold by J. and R. Tonson
Date	1767
Edition	{{{edition}}}
Language	English
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	lvi, [12], 288
Desc.	8vo (21 cm.)
Location	[[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

Armorial bookplate of Lord Camden, front pastedown.

Theocritus was a Hellenistic Greek poet who lived in the first half of the third century BCE in Syracuse on the island of Sicily.^[1] It is possible that Theocritus lived in south Italy for part of his life and even that he visited Alexandria, Egypt, during the reign of Ptolmy II Philadelphus.^[2] Evidence for this is found in the fact that several of Theocritus’ poems are set in Alexandria and directly reference Ptolemy’s palace and life under his rule, specifically poems 15 and 17.^[3] He invented the genre of pastoral or bucolic poetry which focused on artfully simplistic depictions of herdsmen singing of “themselves, their loves and quarrels.”^[4] Due to the relatively limited subject matter, bucolic poetry became used for allegorical comments on society and politics around the time of Virgil.^[5] Theocritus’ extant works include thirty poems, several fragments of poems, and twenty-four epigrams, though the authenticity of all of them is doubtful.^[6]

This work of Theocritus’ The Idylliums of Theocritus was translated from the original Ancient Greek to English by the English reverend Francis Fawkes in 1767.^[7] Fawkes’ translation is notable for being extensively annotated, and not just by himself but he received “the particular help of ten contemporary men of letters” as indicated in his preface.^[8] As this scholarly article indicates by its title, Dr. Samuel Johnson is considered by some to be such a major contributor to the work that he is included in the by-line. In fact, Fawkes refers to him specifically in the preface for his contributions through editing and annotating.^[9] The first portion of the book includes an explanation of Theocritus’s life and pastoral poetry, which is followed by his thirty poems, twenty-two of his twenty-four epigrams. Interestingly, the last work included is Appolonius’s Book II telling of the combat between Pollux and Amycus, with a footnote to see Theocritus’s version of that combat on earlier pages of the volume.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Ordered by Wythe from John Norton & Sons in a letter dated May 15, 1768. Records indicate the order was fulfilled.^[10] Also listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Fawke's Theocritus. 8vo." and kept by Thomas Jefferson He later sold a copy of the same title to the Library of Congress in 1815, but it no longer exists to verify Wythe's prior ownership.^[11]Both the Brown Bibliography^[12] and George Wythe's Library^[13] on LibraryThing, include the 1767 edition of The Idylliums of Theocritus translated by Francis Fawkes. The Wolf Law Library concurred with their identification and purchased a copy of this volume.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary tree calf with gilt border on boards; includes bookplate of Lord Camden.

View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

References

1. ↑ "Theo'critus” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ "Theocritus" in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. by John Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
4. ↑ "pastoral poetry” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
5. ↑ Ibid.
6. ↑ "Theocritus" in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World.
7. ↑ A.T. Hazen and T.O. Mabbott, “Dr. Johnson and Francis Fawkes’s Theocritus,” The Review of English Studies 21, no. 82 (Apr. 1945): 142).
8. ↑ Ibid.
9. ↑ Ibid.
10. ↑ Frances Norton Mason, ed., John Norton & Sons, Merchants of London and Virginia: Being the Papers from their Counting House for the Years 1750 to 1795 (Richmond, Virginia: Dietz Press, 1937), 101. The letter is endorsed "Virga. Aug. 3d 1769/ George Wythe / recd. Octo. 18^th pr. Brilliant / Ans. the March 1770 / pr. Brilliant."
11. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 4:468 (no.4381).
12. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
13. ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe", accessed on February 27, 2014.

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