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Lactantius

The Phoenix

Bath: Old School Press, 1995. Stk. PA 6451 L23 D4 1995.

‘Each year I publish two or three limited editions printed with metal type on fine papers with commissioned illustrations.’ So writes Martyn Ould, proprietor of Old Stile Press at Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath. Latin scholar Eddie Flintoff translated Lactantius’s De Ave Phoenice, a mythical tale of the Phoenix bird, its high tree (and song) in the Sacred Grove, and its re-birth on Earth. Alun Briggs wrote the text in a hand based on a mid-5th century Italian manuscript and then printed it all from specially made blocks. The vivid pochoir illustrations are by Peter Allen. This copy is one of 150 copies.

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