HORACE. Quintus Horatius Flaccus. [Opera]. Paris, Pierre Didot l'aîné, 1799. Large folio, fawn Russian leather, wide border of cold roulettes and grecques set with gilt fillets, diamond-rectangle framing in palladium (oxidised), spine decorated with gilt and silver irons, gilt inner torsade, gilt edges (Period binding). A monumental typographical edition, printed in an edition of 250 copies numbered and signed by Didot l'aîné (no. 193). It is decorated with twelve engraved vignettes based on drawings by the architect Charles Percier. This Horace is the second of the large folios printed in the Louvre by Pierre Didot l'aîné - a collection of which T. F. Dibdin wrote in 1825: "These are books that have never been surpassed. The Horace with the delightful vignettes by Percier is for my taste the volume of choice. Masterfully decorated contemporary binding. Contemporary British armorial bookplate and modern bookplate with the initials HB. Fine restorations to the binding (spine redone); some foxing and a few uniformly foxed leaves.