[Studholme (John)]. An Essay on Human Nature.. Printed by J. Harrison for the Author, 1777.

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Description: FIRST (ONLY) EDITION, 4 lines supplied in MS at end of the Explanation (see below), some mild damp-stainin in the upper 1/3 of the volume, pp. xii, [13-] 184, 12mo, contemporary ?sheep, spine gilt, a little rubbed, slightly warped, good, inscription in Greek at the head of the title of a Reid, inscription on fly-leaf of Deborah Reid of Green Hill. A Lockean treatise: there are few references to other authors, but one, to Locke, adjudges him 'one of the greatest Men'. The attribution of authorship in ESTC is derived from an inscription in a copy belonging to Arnold Muirhead, into whose collection this volume would have dovetailed neatly. The attribution is here in MS on the title-page, in a particularly neat hand 'By John Studholme, Thorsby'. ESTC has Thursby, which is the usual spelling of the village 6 miles south of Carlisle. There are also a couple of corrections to the text, again very neat, suggesting authorial participation. The continuation of the text in MS on p. v is identical to that in the copy digitized in ECCO, which strongly suggests that in fact all copies were in the gift of the author (though why then his name not printed on the title-page remains obscure). There are 5 books printed by Harrison recorded in ESTC between 1776 and 1780, 2 Bibles, a BCP, a short-lived Carlisle magazine, and the present work. 7 copies are recorded in ESTC (BL, C, NLS O, Private Collection: Rutgers, Yale), with WorldCat adding the Newberry, and COPAC Manchester. ?Sheep. We query sheep, because although it has the grain of sheep, it is an unusually tough variety of the skin - perhaps the product of some particularly hardy Cumberland breed; at any rate, a local artefact. (ESTC T65199)

Seller: Blackwell's Rare Books ABA ILAB BA, Oxford, United Kingdom