CAESAR, Gaius Julius (100-44 BCE). The Commentaries of Caesar, Translated into English. To Which is Prefixed a Discourse Concerning the Roman Art of War. Translated by William Duncan. With index and dedication to George Prince of Wales. London: for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, and R. Dodsley, 1753.

Large folio (425 x 264 mm). 86 engraved plates, mostly double–page or folding, including 6 double–page maps and an engraved portrait frontispiece of Caesar, numerous engraved head– and tail–pieces, and initials (some offsetting to double-page plates). (Frontispiece, title and first two leaves of the dedication remargined at gutter and reinserted on a stub, repaired gutter tear to title and the following two leaves of the dedication, sig. 4X remargined at foot). COMPLETE WITH ALL PLATES, INCLUDING THE FAMED DOUBLE–PAGE “BULL” PLATE (“The Ursus or Buffalo”), often lacking. Full contemporary Russian calf twice ruled in gilt, rebacked (light edgewear to boards, spine chipped near head, some light browning to title–page).

FIRST DUNCAN EDITION (second Tonson edition), translated from Samuel Clarke’s 1712 Latin edition printed by Tonson (considered the greatest English printing of a classical text), reproducing the plates for that edition. “Beautifully printed, and richly adorned with a variety of fine cuts… the greatest part of them being plans of battles, sieges, and encampments, or representations of the situation and face of the countries in which the most material transactions passed… The translator has in great measure caught the spirit of his author, and… has preserved Caesar’s turn of phrase and expression” (Brueggemann, 520-21). THE FINEST PRINTING OF CAESAR’S WORKS IN ENGLISH. ESTC T136453; Lowndes I, p. 346; Moss, 241-42.