![[JOHNSON, Samuel, contributor].](/photos/438/main/full_438.jpg "[JOHNSON, Samuel, contributor].")
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2 vols, 8vo, pp. [2], xxxi, [1], 384; [2], 352, 351–512, ‘[513]’–‘[514]’, [2], 513–556, plus final blank, with an engraved frontispiece by Hayman after Grignion in each vol., 32 plates (see below), mostly folding, the maps coloured, titles printed in red and black, without the final advertisement leaf in vol. II. Contemporary mottled calf, with the engraved armorial bookplate of Antoine-Éléonor-Léon Leclerc de Juigné (1728–1811), Archbishop of Paris during the Revolution.
First edition of playwright–publisher Robert Dodsley’s Preceptor, a useful compilation of ‘polite learning’ which takes in mathematics, architecture, geography, rhetoric, drawing, logic, ethics, trade and commerce, and law and government. It enjoyed many editions, ‘even becoming a textbook in colonial American colleges’ (Oxford DNB). Johnson’s contributions are the long Preface to volume I and ‘The Vision of Theodore the Hermit of Teneriffe, found in his Cell’ (II, 516–26), a piece which, by Johnson’s own admission, was ‘the best thing he ever wrote’ (Boswell, Life, I, 192). In this copy, the plate featuring six nudes (‘Drawing No. 9’) has been removed and the numbering of the subsequent four Drawings discreetly altered to avoid suspicion. This was evidently done at an early date. One wonders whether the Archbishop had it removed for reasons of propriety.
First edition of playwright–publisher Robert Dodsley’s Preceptor, a useful compilation of ‘polite learning’ which takes in mathematics, architecture, geography, rhetoric, drawing, logic, ethics, trade and commerce, and law and government. It enjoyed many editions, ‘even becoming a textbook in colonial American colleges’ (Oxford DNB). Johnson’s contributions are the long Preface to volume I and ‘The Vision of Theodore the Hermit of Teneriffe, found in his Cell’ (II, 516–26), a piece which, by Johnson’s own admission, was ‘the best thing he ever wrote’ (Boswell, Life, I, 192). In this copy, the plate featuring six nudes (‘Drawing No. 9’) has been removed and the numbering of the subsequent four Drawings discreetly altered to avoid suspicion. This was evidently done at an early date. One wonders whether the Archbishop had it removed for reasons of propriety. Courtney, pp. 21–2; Hazen, Prefaces and Dedications, pp. 171–9; Fleeman 48.4DP/1.
£1500.00
(equal to approx. US$2375.22* or €1855.06* 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.
