Archibald Pitcairne (1652-1713), was "the latest, the liveliest and, in some ways, the most original Scottish writer of neo-Latin verse," but until this publication there has never been a
complete edition of his poems. Barring new discoveries, it contains the entire corpus of Pitcairne's Latin verse, together with introduction, translation, and commentary. The poems are
important, suggest the translators and editors, "for their quality and originality, and for the vivid image they present of an intellectual universe, historical certainly, but by now almost
wholly unfamiliar, which combines the new world of science and medicine with the old world in which the Divine Right of Kings and the authority of the classical past predominated." The original
Latin and the English translations are presented on facing pages. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
