The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [...]
by Gibbon, Edward:
- Used
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
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London, United Kingdom
Item Price
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About This Item
London, printed for W. Strahan: and T. Cadell [...], 1776-1788. 6 vols. 4to. (27.5 x 22 cms) All first editions; volume one first edition, first issue. pp. [xii], viii, [iv], 586, [ii], lxxxviii, [ii] errata (lacks final blank); [x], 640, [ii] errata; [x], 640, [ii] errata, 8 publishers ads; [ii], viii, [viii], 620; [iv], 684; [xii], 646, [lii] index and errata. Half title in volume one, portrait frontispiece engraved by John Hall after Sir Joshua Reynolds, three folding maps engraved by Thomas Kitchin, occasional foxing and light browning. Recent full calf, gilt, with contrasting morocco lettering pieces. Early shelf mark and illegible inscription (?L-dale) on title. NB: the detailed table of contents in volume one, signed *a4-*b2, was actually issued with volume two as was the frontispiece, but here they have been sensibly placed where most useful, as usual. The third volume concludes with the list of books published by Strahan and Cadell mentioned by Norton, which was not issued with all copies. Gibbon is one of those few writers who hold as high a place in the history of literature as in the roll of great historians. Bury's judgement, opening his authoritative edition of the work, can hardly be bettered and few could disagree with his supporting comment that the "Decline and Fall" has not gone the way of other works, lauded as classics and left on the cold shelves. The work was instantly controversial. In his "Life of Johnson" Boswell recalled a conversation of 1776, when he and the `Good Doctor' "talked of a work much in vogue" which was "written in a very mellifluous style, but which, under pretext of another subject, contained much artful [deistical] infidelity". Boswell felt that the work should have been accompanied by a warning: "spring-guns and men-traps set here". Gibbon's thesis, or a strand of it at least, that the decline of Rome was partly due to the enervating impact of Christianity, would not be accepted uncritically today. However, Gibbon's remarkable use of primary material has set the bar for every historian since. The first volume is particularly scarce in this form, as Norton explains. Strahan originally anticipated that 500 copies would be sufficient, but when printing was already well underway he realised that demand would be much greater and doubled the run to 1000, even at the expense of completely resetting the first part of the book. Our example is the uncorrected first state. Norton, Bibliography of the Works of Edward Gibbon, 20,23 & 29; Printing and the Mind of Man: 222. Book
Synopsis
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was written by English historian Edward Gibbon and published in six volumes. Volume I was published in 1776, and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, VI in 1788-89. The original volumes were published in quarto sections, a common publishing practice of the time.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Bryars and Bryars (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 6404
- Title
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [...]
- Author
- Gibbon, Edward:
- Book Condition
- Used
- Publisher
- and T. Cadell [...]
- Place of Publication
- London, printed for W. Strahan
- Date Published
- 1776-1788
- Bookseller catalogs
- History and Literature;
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Bryars and Bryars
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About the Seller
Bryars and Bryars
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London
About Bryars and Bryars
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- First State
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from the earliest run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some...
- Calf
- Calf or calf hide is a common form of leather binding. Calf binding is naturally a light brown but there are ways to treat the...
- Half Title
- The blank front page which appears just prior to the title page, and typically contains only the title of the book, although, at...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Morocco
- Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
- Errata
- Errata: aka Errata Slip A piece of paper either laid in to the book correcting errors found in the printed text after being...