Fine and scholarly printing of Horace: "a very magnificent and valuable edition; the text of which is formed chiefly on that of Gesner" (Moss, Manual of Classical Bibliography).

Fine and scholarly printing of Horace: "a very magnificent and valuable edition; the text of which is formed chiefly on that of Gesner" (Moss, Manual of Classical Bibliography).

Charles Combe (1743-1817), a physician, began the project of this massive edit of Horace (the footnotes are a great deal longer than the text) along with the classical scholar Henry Homer (1752-1791). Combe brought it to completion after Homer's death and it was published as two separate volumes over two years. Aside from the quality of its printing and composition, the London Horace of 1792-1793 is noted for its exhaustive commentaries. Accordingly, this "variorum" edition compares and publishes known textual variations (in collating the known texts of Horace the editor consulted the first printed edition of 1470 alongside seven manuscript copies held in the Harleian Collection).

A contemporary evaluation in the Critical Review of 1796 applauds the quality of this edition: "With regard to the typographical merits of the present work, they must be acknowledged to be great. It is printed on fine wove paper; the type is excellent, and the press-work is extremely clear and neat. The margin is also spacious, and the arrangement such as does the printers much credit."