On my bookshelf sits a large octavo (14″ x 9″), which is considered to be one of the greatest achievements in English literature.. #JohnDryden (1631-1700) was a playwright, a poet, a literary critic, and Britain’s first poet laureate in 1688.

In 1694, Dryden began his greatest and defining work. A translation of ‘The Works of Virgil’. It was first published in 1697. My copy comes from 1701 and was published by #JacobTonson. The original 1697 publication was only available by subscription, and this 1701 version retains the 100 engravings of the original. Individual engraving plates display the  accreditation to the subscriber.

The engravings were procured from earlier Latin versions of the ‘Aeneid’. They were mostly created by Vaclav Hollar (1607-1677) and Pierre Lombart (1612/13-1682). This volume was published after the death of Dryden in 1700.

Dryden took Virgil’s epic 10,000 line poem and turned it into 13,700 rhyming couplets. Classical Latin poetry, in this case written in hexameters, is based on the length of syllables rather than the stress on syllables.

Two other greats from English literature were involved with the publication. #JosephAddison wrote the preface for the book, and #WilliamCongreve checked the translation against the original Latin.

Dryden will continue to go down in history for his translation of literary works. He made those ancient works accessible to the English reader.

A fabulous achievement which, along with fellow artists, has produced a book for the ages.