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4to (178 × 134 mm), pp. [x], 406, bound without the first and last blanks, but with the two inserted leaves, ‘The Printer to the Understanders’. Closed tears to inner margins and foredge, pp. 73-76, waterstain at lower right corner of pp. 151-160. Late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century half calf, spine with five raised bands, brown morocco label, blind motif in compartments, marbled sides, all edges gilt. Modern bookplates. A very good copy.
First edition of the principal collection of Donne’s poetical works, issued two years after his death. This copy has the two inserted leaves with ‘The Printer to the Understanders ‘ and ‘Hexastichon Bibliopolæ’, not always present, and has the leaf Nn1 in the earlier, uncorrected, state with 35 lines of text on p. 273 instead of 30 or 31, with omission of the usual running headline. The editor of this first edition evidently made use of more than one group of surviving manuscripts. While he made a number of minor changes on his own authority, the 1633 Poems remains the best early text of the most important of all metaphysical collections.
Keynes 78; Ashley 3082(1); Pforzheimer 296; Grolier, Langland to Prior 286; STC 7045; Hayward 54.
£20000.00
(equal to approx. US$31669.60* or €24734.20* for 22 May 2012)
* Dollar and Euro prices are given as a guideline only. The actual exchange rate may vary according to your payment option.
