Kisses: being an English translation in verse of the Basia [...] With the original Latin, and an essay on his life and writings. The second edition, with additions, and the Epithalamium newly translated.

Publication details: Printed for J. Bew,1778,

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Bookseller Notes

Kisses (which first appeared in 1541) is a short collection of poems, written in various metres, by Dutch Neo-Latin poet Johannes Secundus (1510-36). It appears here in a parallel text with an English translation and a life of the author. Inspired by his Spanish muse, Neaera, Secundus explores the idea of the kiss, with themes themes including: the 'arithmetic' of kissing; kisses as nourishment or cure; kisses that wound or bring death; and the exchange of souls through kissing. The poems, which are now recognised as extended imitations of Catullus, had an afterlife as Dutch madrigals. Secundus was a favourite of Montaigne, who felt him underrated and esteemed his work alongside that of Boccaccio and Rabelais.

Description

engraved allegorical frontispiece of the Origin of Kisses (by Bartolozzi after Mortimer) within the pagination, errata leaf at end; three quires with an old unobtrusive wormtrack, the odd smudge, but generally clean, pp. 276, [2], 8vo, late nineteenth/early twentieth century half calf and marbled boards, gilt rule at spine and black lettering piece, speckled edges, very good

Bibliography: (ESTC: T101632)