London:: Printed for, and Sold by the Translator, at No 48, Berwick-Street, Soho., M DCC LXXXII.
Physical Description
[4] p, 1, [1], 2-19 p., frontis.; 262 mm. (Folio).
Contents
[Frontis., t.p., dedic.] - [Text] - Notes By Mr. Gray [referring three lines to passages in Dante and Petrarch].
Responsibility Note
The frontispiece is signed as designed by I. B. Cipriani and engraved by F. Bartolozzi.
The translation is dedicated by the translator, J. Giannini, to 'Miss Pocock ... daughter of the truly great Sir George Pocock' [she in 1782 became Lady Sophia Poulett].
References
P. van Tieghem, La poésie de la nuit et des tombeaux en Europe au XVIIIe siècle (1922); B. Zumbini, 'La poesia sepolcrale straniera e italiane e il Carme del Foscolo', in Studi di Letteratura Italiana, 1894.
ESTC, T71247
Summary Note
The first edition of this translation had been published earlier in the same year. Gray's Elegy was first published in 1751; and joined Edward Young's Night thoughts (1742-6), R. Blair's The grave (1743) and J. Hervey's Meditations among the tombs (1745), to form a body of meditative literature that was widely translated throughout Europe, and influenced such figures as Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Fontanes and Foscolo.
Here the English poem and its Italian translation are printed in parallel - the Italian version under the title, Elegia Scritta Nel Cimitero D'Un Villaggio. The translator, Giannini, follows Gray's metre and rhyming scheme fairly closely, as may be seen from his first stanza: 'Piange la squilla 'l giorno che si muore, Lento in recinto i buoi traggono il piede, A casa strascina l'aratore, E alle tenebre il mondo ed a me cede'.
The only illustration, the frontispiece, shows a poet in a country church-yard. It is captioned with verses from the Elegy, in English and Italian.
Provenance
Acquired between 1782 and 1802. Recorded in RAA Library, Catalogue, 1802.
Binding Note
20th-century brown half morocco, brown cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Tracts' and 'R.A.' Bound with seven others.
Subject
Cemeteries
English poetry - Translations into Italian - Italian poetry - Translations from English - Great Britain - 18th century