(London: Printed by R. Hodgkinsonne, 1660).

FIRST EDITION OF THIS ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE WORKS OF JUVENAL. A fine scholarly first edition with significant notes and explanations of Juvenal's words and meanings. Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Englished as Juvenal (c. 55–128), was a Roman poet and author of the Satires, a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people from the late first and early second centuries AD suggest that he began writing no earlier than that time.
Juvenal wrote at least 16 poems in the verse form dactylic hexameter. These poems cover a range of Roman topics. This follows Lucilius—the originator of the Roman satire genre, and it fits within a poetic tradition that also includes Horace and Persius. The Satires are a vital source for the study of ancient Rome from a number of perspectives. At first glance the Satires could be read as a critique of Rome.
In his introduction Stapylton writes that 'Juvenal was born at Aquinum in Campania; his father a rich freedman of the town, bred him as a Scholar, and designed him for a Lawyer. At middle-age, he became heir to a fortune, therefore not necessitated to make Law his Profession, he wholly applied himself to the study of Moral Philosophy; and by that rule measuring the actions of his Countreymen the Romans, which then gave as well the Example, as the Law to all Nations, he found nothing so needfull for the corrupted World, as Reformation of Manners. This he resolved to make his business, not by inflicting a penalty like the Censor, but by showing the ugliness of Vice as a Sayrist, in Imitation of Lucilius: yet so far out-doing his pattern, that he read his Satyres publickly, not alone with the general applause of the people of Rome, but even Quintilian himself became his bearer and admirer....He was a judge of manners, so incorrupted, that his Enemy, though favourite to Caesar and the Court-Informer, could not find matter against him for a charge of defamation. In short, he was a Politician for the benefit of Mankind, disguising Morality under the vizzard of a Satyr; for which he had his warrant from Plato....His verse is far better that Horace. Item #34669

First Edition. The frontispiece illustrated with a classical image of Juvenal executed in copperplate, additional engraved portrait plate of Stapylton, and with finely engraved folio plates depicting classical images at the beginning of each of the Satyrs with an additional plate to the Figura Prima prior to the first Satyr, finely engraved head-pieces and large historiated initials throughout. The plates are by Wenceslaus Hollar after Robert Streeter; the engraved portrait of Stapylton by Pierre Lombart; the 16 etched plates are by Hollar after Streeter, Johan Dankers, and Francis Barlow. Each has an explanatory leaf. Large Folio, 15" x 10.5", contemporary calf over marbled paper covered boards, the spine with raised bands over cords gilt ruled, compartments of the spine with central gilt tooling, one compartment lettered in gilt. [24], 522, [2], [26] pp. A very well preserved copy, the plates and text-block crisp and clean and unpressed, the binding secure, tight and strong and in pleasing condition.