RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, RENDERED INTO ENGLISH BY EDWARD F...

Estimate

£300 - £500

RUBAIYAT
OF OMAR KHAYYAM, RENDERED INTO ENGLISH BY EDWARD FITZGERALD, ILLUSTRATED BY RENÉ BULL, PUBLISHED BY HODDER AND STOUGHTON, LONDON, 1913
First edition, an excellent copy of one of the most beautifully illustrated Rubaiyat editions, twenty-eight coloured illustrations, plus a frontispiece and nine full-page illustrations, all with tissue guards and within decorative borders, numerous text illustrations in blue, minor foxing and slight rubbing to the extremities of the binding, tan cloth binding in Art Nouveau style with full decorative gilt to the front board and spine, gilt-stamped title on the front cover and spine

28.5 x 22cm
Omar Khayyam was a renowned Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet who lived during the 11th-12th centuries. Born in Nishapur, he was a polymath who made significant contributions across various fields, but it is his poetic work that has cemented his lasting legacy. Khayyam is best known as the author of the Rubaiyat, a collection of short, rhyming verses that eloquently explore themes of mortality, the transience of human existence, the pursuit of pleasure, and humanity's relationship with the divine. His poetic writings, which blend philosophical contemplation with vivid, sensual imagery, have been widely translated and immortalised in numerous languages. Khayyam's Rubaiyat is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature, and his distinctive poetic voice, which balances profundity and hedonism, has influenced countless writers and thinkers over the centuries. As both a polymath and a poet of great depth and artistry, Omar Khayyam remains one of the most celebrated intellectual figures to emerge from the cultural flowering of mediaeval Persia.