RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, TRANSLATED BY EDWARD FITZGERALD, I...

Estimate

£300 - £500

RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, TRANSLATED BY EDWARD FITZGERALD, ILLUSTRATED BY LAWRENCE A. PATTERSON, WITH A CRITICAL ANALYSIS BY DAVID ANDERSON, SAN FRANCISCO JOHNCK, KIBBEE & COMPANY, 1926
Comprising 101 quatrains with 8 full page illustrations and 7 small illustrations by Lawrence Andrew Patterson, 47 pages, inscribed in ink by Wallace Kibbe to Kelso Norman “The world is full and complete to those who see it to be so - and ‘a sorry scheme of things’ only to those whole vision is clouded. San Francisco March 25, 1944” cardboard binding in marbled paper with a red leather spine, the title gilt-embossed, in a plastic dust jacket for protection.

30 x 21.5cm
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.