This, Baskerville's 1757 edition of Virgil, is the first book printed on wove paper, which was manufactured by James Whatman specifically to accommodate Baskerville's finely cut types.

Some copies of this edition are found extra-illustrated with a set or partial set of plates from Ogilby's Virgil of 1654.

Signature statement as given by Gaskell: pi℗ø a-b℗ø A-3H́þ

Error in pagination: 106-232 numbered 105-231.

The first 28 gatherings (A-2E) are printed on unwatermarked wove paper, made in a single-faced wove mould. The remainder and all cancellantia are on an unwatermarked laid paper. Cf. Gaskell.

For further information on this edition, see Gaskell, Philip. John Baskerville: a bibliography. (Cambridge: University Press, 1959) as well as: Straus, Ralph and Robert K. Dent. John Baskerville: a memoir. (Cambridge: University Press, 1907).

Gaskell, P. John Baskerville

Straus, Ralph and Dent, R.K. John Baskerville. p. 67, no. 5

Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) copy filed under BENTON 30.873.2 is bound by Derome le jeune in red morocco triple-panelled in gilt with the spine likewise panelled and tooled. All text block edges are gilt. This copy displays the typographical peculiarities ascribed by Straus and Dent to the fourth of the seven states of the first edition and is extra-illustrated, as issued, with 10 plates engraved by Hollar, Faithorne, and Lombart after artwork by Cleyn. These 10 plates are all taken from Ogilby's Virgil of 1654 and are painted over in watercolor. The volume is also interleaved with engraved plates from three other books: 58 leaves of plates and 16 pages of explanatory text from Emmanuel Schelstrate's Virgil of 1750 (London: Knapton and Sandby), 8 leaves of plates from Pierre Fulcrand de Rosset's L'Agriculture poeme of 1774 (Paris: L'Imprimerie royale), and 2 leaves of plates engraved by Picart from Bernard Fontenelle's Oeuvres of 1728 (The Hague: Gosse et Neaulme). Bound-in before the title page is a folded broadside specimen of Baskerville's types, dated to ca. 1760 by Gaskell. Leaf pi1 (blank) is wanting. The armorial bookplate of William Gott is present on the front pastedown and an early bibliographical inscription, in French, is present on the verso of the front free endpaper.

Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) copy filed under BENTON 30.873.1 is bound in ca. late-19th century olive morocco double-panelled in gilt with borders of floral tooling. The spine is panelled and tooled in gilt and all text block edges are gilt. This copy displays the typographical peculiarities ascribed by Straus and Dent to the third of the seven states of the first edition and is extra-illustrated with 43 plates from Ogilby's Virgil, including a large, foldout map of Italy and Greece tipped in before the title page. The armorial bookplate of the Dogmersfield Library is present on the front pastedown. Leaf pi1 (blank) is wanting. This copy is housed in a brown pigskin box with the title stamped in gilt on the spine.