[OVID - PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO; MAY, J. LEWIS (trans.)]. The Love Books of Ovid: Being the Amores, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris and Medicamina Faciei Femineae of Publius Ovidius Naso. Translated out of the Latin by J. Lewis May. Illustrated by Jean de Bosschere. London: John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, MCMXXV. [1925].
FIRST LIMITED EDITION, number 590 of 3000 printed, hand-numbered to the limitation page. Cloth-bound; hardcover with dust jacket; octavo (25 x 16 x 3.5 cm); pp. xxxiv, 216. English text, translated by J. Lewis May. Bound in the publisher's blue cloth; lettered and decorated in gilt to the upper cover and spine; supplied with the original dust jacket; top edge tinted blue; other edges uneven; half-title; title-page printed in red and black; illustrated with twenty-four colour plates by Jean De Bosschere; head- and tail-piece decorations. Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Ltd. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight, secure, and square. The covers and dust jacket very well-preserved. Interior with a light trace of foxing to the endpapers, else clean and without previous ownership makings. Scarce thus.
Notes: Notes: A wonderful example of this classical text, in English, being the limited-edition compilation of the Roman poet's erotic work, featuring an English translation by J. Lewis May alongside iconic, sensual art deco illustrations by the Belgian artist Jean de Bosschère. The volume translates four major Latin elegies into English prose: Amores (The Loves): Poems tracing an affair with a woman named Corinna. Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love): A notorious three-part instructional manual on seduction. Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love): Advice on how to fall out of love and avoid heartbreak. Medicamina Faciei Femineae (Women's Facial Cosmetics): A fragmentary didactic poem on Roman beauty treatments.
