Sir William Drummond (of Logiealmond) — A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens.

Fine press edition, 2025. One of 25 hand-numbered copies.

 

This fine limited edition revives one of the most intellectually distinctive works of the Scottish Enlightenment — A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens, first printed in London by W. Bulmer and Company in 1794. Combining classical learning with diplomatic insight, Drummond’s comparative study of the Greek polis stands at the intersection of philosophy, statecraft, and eighteenth-century scholarship.

A Scottish diplomat and scholar of wide learning, Sir William Drummond examines the opposing constitutions of Sparta and Athens, exploring how civic virtue, discipline, and hierarchy coexist with liberty, democracy, and the rights of the citizen. Written amid the political ferment of the 1790s, A Review offers a calm and erudite meditation on the balance between order and freedom — a question that has lost none of its urgency in the modern age.

This 2025 fine press edition, limited to just twenty-five hand-numbered copies, restores the dignity of Bulmer’s original printing through contemporary craftsmanship. Each copy is hand-bound by Krzysztof Cofalik, printed on Conqueror pure cotton paper, and typeset in Warbler, a revival of William Martin’s letterforms originally cut for Bulmer’s Shakespeare Press. Greek quotations appear in GFS Porson, preserving scholarly clarity and historical accuracy.

 

Historical Context

Sir William Drummond of Logiealmond (c.1770–1828) embodied the cosmopolitan spirit of the late Enlightenment — a statesman, philosopher, and Hellenist whose writings reflect the union of intellectual curiosity and practical reason. His Review appeared at a moment when Europe, shaken by the French Revolution, was reconsidering the foundations of political authority.

For Drummond, the ancient city-states of Greece offered a mirror in which to examine the perennial problem of governance. Sparta represented discipline, austerity, and collective virtue; Athens embodied freedom, creativity, and civic engagement. Yet neither system was ideal. Sparta achieved stability through restraint but at the cost of individuality; Athens fostered liberty yet risked dissolution through excess.

Drummond’s comparative study, grounded in both scholarship and statesmanship, anticipates later debates in constitutional theory. His reflections on the interplay between virtue and liberty echo through nineteenth-century liberalism and remain strikingly contemporary.

 

The Edition

• Limited to 25 hand-numbered copies
• Printed on Conqueror pure cotton paper, archival and elegantly textured
• Typeset in Warbler, a modern revival of William Martin’s neoclassical types
• Greek quotations in GFS Porson, the definitive scholarly Greek face
• Hand-bound by Krzysztof Cofalik in full leather with gilt spine titling, marbled endpapers, and linen joints

 

Every design decision — from paper weight to margin proportion — serves the principle of restraint and clarity. The aesthetic recalls the quiet rationality of London’s late-Georgian presses, where beauty was born of precision.

 

Typography and Design

Typographically, this edition bridges Enlightenment and modernity. Warbler, designed by David Jonathan Ross, revives the serene forms of William Martin’s 1790s types — fonts admired for their lucidity and proportion, making visible the Enlightenment ideal of reason in print. For the Greek passages, GFS Porson provides both fidelity and grace, descending directly from Richard Porson’s canonical type. Together they unite two disciplines: the typographic and the philosophical.

The page design follows classical proportion, with generous margins, discreet running heads, and a text block harmonised to the golden section. Each page invites contemplation — a pace of reading suited to the elegance of Drummond’s prose.

 

Collecting Significance

Fine press re-editions of philosophical and political works occupy a distinctive place in modern book collecting: they celebrate both the history of ideas and the enduring art of printing. This edition of Drummond’s Review exemplifies that dual tradition. The limitation to only twenty-five copies ensures rarity; the craftsmanship ensures permanence.

To own a copy is to hold a dialogue between centuries — between the reflective prose of the Enlightenment and the contemporary revival of artisanal printing.

 

Condition and Presentation

Each copy is new, immaculate, and hand-numbered. The binding is tight, the gilt spine bright, the edges left untrimmed to preserve the tactile character of handmade paper. A printed colophon bears the limitation number and the binder’s signature. Each volume is housed in a custom slipcase lined with archival paper.

All copies are securely packed and shipped worldwide via FedEx International Priority, tracked and insured, ensuring that each arrives ready to assume its place in a serious library of political or philosophical works.

 

Conclusion

This 2025 fine press edition of Sir William Drummond’s A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens restores the grace and gravity of an Enlightenment text through the art of contemporary bookmaking.

It stands as both a scholarly artifact and a work of beauty — a meditation in print on liberty, order, and the enduring harmony between thought and form.