Strabo:”Rerum Geographicarum Libri XVII,Graecae et Latini”.Oxonii (Oxford) 1807. Sixth edition  in Greek and Latin, a luxurious monumental edition that took 35 years to be completed. Imperial Folio 43x28cm.Two volumes complete,[8] [22] 643p.,647-1333p. and the 17 folded copper engraved maps and one diagram, as called for. Contemporary binding rubbed slightly differently in the two volumes, covers detached or almost detached (very heavy books),internally clean and bright, occasionally some offsetting on the maps, overall an almost very good set. Strabo s  famous Geography, one of the best and more detailed travel accounts from the ancient world, has been very rarely edited, as the work was colossal. During the enlightenment, and after the  edition of 1620  by Cabouzon, Oxford University had decided to finance a new critical edition and committed this work, in 1773,to Thomas Falconer (1738-1792), one of the best classical scholar of 18th century. The University demanded also from D Anville, the best Geographer of that time, to prepare the adequate maps of Greece and the ancient world. D Anville prepared the 4 first maps which were engraved before his death in 1782.Falconer,a perfectionist, took 10 years to submit the first three of the seventeen books of Strabo work. The printing of the first volume had started in 1784.Meanwhile the University assigned (after the death of D Anville),  the preparation of the maps to Thomas Conder, an English geographer who prepared and submitted all the signed maps by the early 1790s.But Falconer died in 1792 and most of the last books were not ready yet. After several years of interruption, the University asked from Th.Falconer,the nephew of the deceased scholar and also a classical scholar, to finish the job. The last books were finally published in the very early years of the 19th century and the title page printed in 1807.It raised huge criticism that time as it was judged well below expectation after so many years and the huge expenses occurred  (Edinburg Review 14,July 1809).Still it remains a monumental and luxurious reference edition of Strabo work and the very first edition to be illustrated with fine copper engraved maps, printed before 1800. The previous one which had woodcut maps had been published in 1571 (previous lot ).A fine edition with a big corpus of seventeen, late 18th century, maps of Greece and the Levant. Very rare.