Thucydides [History of the Peloponnesian War]

‘One of the greatest of the many masterpieces of your Press'

Opening lines to each of the 8 books designed by Graily Hewitt and printed in red, Colin Franklin identifies that the accompanying 3-line initials, also printed in red, are taken from Eric Gill's alphabet for the 1906 Ashendene Utopia. Printed in Ptolemy type with marginal chapter summaries in Blado Italic. One of 260 copies printed on paper, with an additional 20 on vellum. Folio, 40 x 27.4cm, viii, 364pp. Original publisher's white pigskin, uncut, with cardboard packing container, possibly as issued from the press. Chelsea, the Ashendene Press.

Very good, light rubbing to extremities and some very minor soiling to boards. Ownership signature of Lt. Commander Robert "Robin" White of the Royal Navy (1904-1939).

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, formerly Latin master of Balliol college. 

One of the final books to be issued from the press. Sydney Cockerell, writing in a letter to St. John Hornby, considered it ‘one of the greatest of the many masterpieces of your Press’ and C.R. Ashbee announced proudly that he would be ‘placing your Thucydides into one of the principal corners of my Library’. Although the official bibliography of the press fails to mention it, Colin Franklin points out that the large initial letters were designed by Eric Gill and mark the second appearance of those which he originally created for the Ashendene Utopia.

Thucydides' text fits neatly into Franklin’s contention that the ‘choice of books at the Ashendene Press was conservative, peaceful, domestic, occasionally amusing’ (Colin Franklin, The Ashendene Press, p.103), however its contemporary significance in the fields of politics and historiography cannot be overstated. The 8 books of the History of the Peloponnesian War ‘mark the longest and most decisive step that has ever been taken by a single man towards making history what it is today’ (J.B. Bury, The Ancient Greek Historians, 1909), and Karl Popper considered Thucydides to be the ‘greatest historian, perhaps, who ever lived’ (The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945). The notion of the ‘Thucydides trap’, in which a rising political entity (Athens) threatens the established ruling power (Sparta) has become common parlance in discussions of modern international relations, and the work continues to have a profound influence on world leaders today. 

Stock Code: 251143