cxii, 545, [11] pp. (8vo) 7¾x4¾, modern polished calf lettered in gilt on spine, edges stained red. First Edition.
Bentley, one of the most brilliant classical scholars of that or any other day, is here represented by the first edition of his most important single work, which put Greek scholarship on a new and firm basis and debunked the epistles of the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris. Among other things, the book exposed the scholarly pretensions of Swift's patron William Temple, and caused Swift to pillory Bentley for all time in The Battle of the Books. For that and other reasons Swift's friend Pope gave Bentley a prominent place among the dunces in his Dunciad.
