"COME, FILL THE CUP": THE RUBÁIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, RIVERSIDE PRESS EDITION DESIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS

(ROGERS, Bruce) (FITZGERALD, Edward) KHAYYAM, Omar. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám the Astronomer Poet of Persia. (Boston & New York): Riverside Press (for Houghton Mifflin), 1900. Octavo, later three-quarter red morocco gilt, raised bands, uncut. $1250.

Limited edition Rubaiyat from the celebrated typographer and book designer Bruce Rogers, number 198 of only 300 copies printed by the Riverside Press, elegantly bound.

Composed in 12th-century Persia and rendered into English by Edward FitzGerald (his first version appeared in 1859), these stanzas express "the desire to snatch the utmost of pleasurable sensation from the irretrievable passing moment… [but also] more sober thoughts of the Power that has created beauty and in man a capacity to appreciate beauty but has cursed him with transience… In words and cadences of haunting loveliness a desolating message was communicated to numberless hearts" (Baugh, et al., 1417-18). Bruce Rogers designed this volume for the Riverside Press using Brimmer type and William Augustus Brown's edition of the text, with introduction and notes by Brown; "the first impression on taking up [this] new limited edition of the 'Rubaiyat'… is that of extreme pleasure in all its mechanical details. The work of the Riverside Press, both in the typography and press work, is of the highest artistic excellence. Designed by Bruce Rogers, it was printed under his supervision from a font of beautiful English type… Indeed, from a printing standpoint, this edition may well be said to be the most perfect so far published" (New York Times). The copyright page describes the main text here as "a reprint of the second edition, modified by the insertion of omitted stanzas and by some of the variants of the first, third, and fourth editions." Work of Bruce Rogers 46. Potter, Bibliography of the Rubaiyat 303.

Contents with light pencil marks, front cover with faint shadow of one small smudge, otherwise a fine and lovely copy.