Author: HERODOTUS. TAYLOR (Isaac):
Title: Herodotus, Translated from the Greek, for the Use of General Readers; With Short Explanatory Notes.
Description: London: Holdworth and Ball..., 1829. FIRST EDITION of this translation. Large, thick 8vo, 228 x 134 mms., pp. [ii], [iii] iv -xxvi, 766, [8 - adverts], folding engraved map as frontispiece, folding "Chronology of the Persian and Grecian History," uncut, many leaves unopened, original boards, linen spine, paper label; ex-library stamp on title-page, edges a bit soiled, but a very good copy, inscribed on top margin of recto of front free end-paper, "The editor of the Literary Gazette."Even though many leaves are unopened, someone last left the marginal injunction "omit" beside this passage on page 433: "If the kings do not make their appearance at the public supper, two choenices of barley-bread are sent home to each of them, with a small pint of wine:--if they are present, they have a double portion of all. The same honour is conferred upon them, when invited to a private house." A theologian, artist, and inventor, Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers] (1787–1865) was eldest surviving son of Isaac Taylor of Ongar (1759–1829). His best-known work is The Natural History of Enthusiasm, published also in 1829. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1829 was happy with the translation: "we think Mr. Taylor entitled to much praise for familiarizing the English public with an author, not only one of the principal historians of antiquity, but in many matters the only one." A much longer notice in The Westminster Review took the opposite view, for example, that the translation, "seems to be occasionally inelegant and aukward [sic], when there is no particular difficulty to plead as an apology; there is occasionally 'uncouthness' which is not justified by any necessity, or recompensed by by the felicity of keeping the signficant turns of the original; an exact scholar might also complain of several slight inaccuracies."

Keywords: classics translation prose


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