AN EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED FIRST-EDITION DIARY
PEPYS, Samuel.
Memoirs of Samuel Pepys. Comprising His Diary from 1659 to 1669, Deciphered by the Rev. John Smith A.B. of St. John's College, Cambridge, from the Original Short-Hand Ms. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from His Private Correspondence. Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke.
London: Henry Colburn, 1825.
Two volumes, quarto (11-1/2 x 9-1/2 in). Complete (except half-titles omitted) with the original 13 engraved plates and two engraved text illustrations. Bound by Bayntun of Bath (its gilt stamp on lower front dentelles) in full red crushed levant morocco extra. Bindings elaborately gilt, spines in six compartments, red watered silk doublures, all edges gilt, maroon felt-lined chemises and full maroon morocco gilt-tooled slipcases. Fine throughout.
First edition, extra-illustrated with the insertion of 158 additional plates of engraved portraits, scenes, maps and other art, meticulously scaled and including some brilliant proofs. This edition of this book, its title page in facsimile, is the 75th entry (pp. 150-1) in The Grolier Club's One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature (New York, 1902).
Pepys bequeathed the original bound manuscript diary to Magdalene College, Cambridge. In the early 1820's George Neville, the Master, entrusted it to the Reverend John Smith, who said of his work: "The original Diary is written in Short-hand, & extends to upwards of 3,000 pages.... I deciphered the whole, & transcribed it in nearly 10,000 Quarto pages. When I commenced it, I did not know a single character of the Short-hand, wh. varies much in places when Pepys wished to be unusually secret, & it occupied me in incessant labour for three years...." (John Drinkwater, Pepys His Life & Character (London, 1930), pp. 207-8). Neville's brother Braybrooke then completed this first editing, discretely selecting or concealing the passages for the publication of this consummately literate and historical diary.
Provenance: Elizabeth Creve Caldwell (her gilt-tooled leather bookplates tipped in)
View more images of this item
Price: $7,000
Inquiries: mail@mobysnewt.com
PEPYS, Samuel.
Memoirs of Samuel Pepys. Comprising His Diary from 1659 to 1669, Deciphered by the Rev. John Smith A.B. of St. John's College, Cambridge, from the Original Short-Hand Ms. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from His Private Correspondence. Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke.
London: Henry Colburn, 1825.
Two volumes, quarto (11-1/2 x 9-1/2 in). Complete (except half-titles omitted) with the original 13 engraved plates and two engraved text illustrations. Bound by Bayntun of Bath (its gilt stamp on lower front dentelles) in full red crushed levant morocco extra. Bindings elaborately gilt, spines in six compartments, red watered silk doublures, all edges gilt, maroon felt-lined chemises and full maroon morocco gilt-tooled slipcases. Fine throughout.
First edition, extra-illustrated with the insertion of 158 additional plates of engraved portraits, scenes, maps and other art, meticulously scaled and including some brilliant proofs. This edition of this book, its title page in facsimile, is the 75th entry (pp. 150-1) in The Grolier Club's One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature (New York, 1902).
Pepys bequeathed the original bound manuscript diary to Magdalene College, Cambridge. In the early 1820's George Neville, the Master, entrusted it to the Reverend John Smith, who said of his work: "The original Diary is written in Short-hand, & extends to upwards of 3,000 pages.... I deciphered the whole, & transcribed it in nearly 10,000 Quarto pages. When I commenced it, I did not know a single character of the Short-hand, wh. varies much in places when Pepys wished to be unusually secret, & it occupied me in incessant labour for three years...." (John Drinkwater, Pepys His Life & Character (London, 1930), pp. 207-8). Neville's brother Braybrooke then completed this first editing, discretely selecting or concealing the passages for the publication of this consummately literate and historical diary.
Provenance: Elizabeth Creve Caldwell (her gilt-tooled leather bookplates tipped in)
View more images of this item
Price: $7,000
Inquiries: mail@mobysnewt.com