Virgil, Virgil's *Aeneid*. Translated by Franciszek Dmochowski [1809]

Title: Virgil’s *Aeneid*. A posthumous work translated by Franciszek Dmochowski.

Author: Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BCE) [the greatest Roman poet of the Augustan era, author of *The Aeneid*, *The Bucolics*, and *The Georgics*].

Translation: Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski; the last three books were translated by Wincenty Jakubowski.

Publisher: Warsaw, at the 20th Piarist Printing House.

Year of publication: 1809.

Format: 18 cm.

Volume: [XX], 420 pp.

Binding: Original period half-leather binding.

This is the first edition of the *Aeneid* translated by Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski, one of the most important translators of the Polish Enlightenment and the author of the classic translation of the *Iliad*. Virgil’s *Aeneid*, an epic poem about Aeneas’s journey from burning Troy to Italy and the mythical origins of Rome, has for centuries been one of the pillars of European education and a model of epic poetry. Dmochowski worked on the translation during the final years of his life, but he died in 1808 before completing it. The work was published a year later as a “posthumous work,” and the final three missing books were translated by Wincenty Jakubowski. The original plan was to publish the translation alongside the Latin text; however, in order to expedite publication, only the Polish text was ultimately released, printed at the Piarist printing house in Warsaw. This edition, published during the time of the Duchy of Warsaw, stands as a monument to mature Polish Classicism and is Dmochowski’s last great work of translation.

Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski was born on December 2, 1762. From 1778 to 1789, he was a member of the Piarist Order and taught at colleges in Radom, Warsaw, and Łomża. In 1788, he published *The Art of Versification*, in which he formulated the canon of Polish literary classicism. He was associated with the Kołłątaj School. During the Kościuszko Uprising, he co-edited the *Gazeta Wolna Warszawska* and served on the Supreme National Council. After the uprising’s defeat, he went into exile, and upon his return to Warsaw in 1799, he was among the founders of the Society of Friends of Science. His most outstanding achievement is the first complete translation of the “Iliad” into Polish. He also translated excerpts from the *Odyssey*, as well as works by Horace, Lucan, and Milton. He died on June 20, 1808.

Provenance: an inventory number stamp appears on the title page and the following page.

This is the first edition of the classic translation of the *Aeneid* by the author of the Polish *Iliad*, dating from the era of the Duchy of Warsaw, in its original half-leather binding in very good condition, with colored page edges. A must-have for lovers of ancient literature and the Polish Enlightenment, as well as collectors of early translations of the classics.

The half-leather binding is in very good condition; the spine label is glued to the spine of the binding. The text block is intact. The paper has natural specks, discoloration, and soiling, with a few areas of discoloration. The page edges are stained. The title page and the following page bear stamps with the inventory number. The full-page portrait of the translator is missing.

Catalog ID: 6387-18-A-Z