GIBBON, Edward.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
“THE GREATEST HISTORICAL WORK EVER WRITTEN”: Edward Gibbon's masterpiece The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1782-1788.
$18,500.00
Out of Stock
Item Number: RRB-144652
* Custom Clamshell Boxes are hand made by the Harcourt Bindery upon request and take approximately 60 days to complete
Rare first edition set of Gibbon's masterpiece with only volume I being a second edition. Quarto, 6 volumes bound in full diced calf with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt scrolling and flueron cornerpieces to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges speckled black, engraved frontispiece portrait of Gibbon by John Hall after Sir Joshua Reynolds & map of the "Eastern Part of the Roman Empire" in Vol. II.; map of the "Western Part of the Roman Empire" in Vol. III. Volume I is a second edition, volumes II-VI are first editions. In good condition, Vols. I and II rebacked. Armorial bookplate of C. Codrington to each pastedown, vol. III with a small strip of marbled paper tipped to front free endpaper, tape repair to Map of the Western Empire.
"This masterpiece of historical penetration and literary style has remained one of the ageless historical works Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in inimitable prose" (PMM 222). "For 22 years Gibbon was a prodigy of steady and arduous application. His investigations extended over almost the whole range of intellectual activity for nearly 1500 years. And so thorough were his methods that the laborious investigations of German scholarship, the keen criticisms of theological zeal, and the steady researches of (two) centuries have brought to light very few important errors in the results of his labors. But it is not merely the learning of his work, learned as it is, that gives it character as a history. It is also that ingenious skill by which the vast erudition, the boundless range, the infinite variety, and the gorgeous magnificence of the details are all wrought together in a symmetrical whole. It is still entitled to be esteemed as the greatest historical work ever written" (Adams, Manual of Historical Literature, 146-7).
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
$18,500.00
Out of Stock
