Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$90.17 + shipping
Description: The first edition of Lord Sheffield's account of the life and works of this eighteenth-century English historian. 'Illustrated from his Letters, with Occasional Notes and Narrative, by John Lord Sheffield'. Volume two of the original two. Rebound in a half calf binding with marbled boards. Externally, rubbed with wear to extremities and slight loss to the spine. Spine label is absent and there is cracking to both joints. Internally, firmly bound and bright. Instances of spotting with the odd handling mark. Private library bookplate to the front pastedown. Good Only
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$122.38 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First edition. Hardback. 2 vols. Large quartos. xxvi, 703; viii, 728pp. Contemporary full leather with gilt spine titles, borders and dentelles, marbled endpapers. Covers slightly worn and marked, hinges weak with front board of vol. 1. detached, no frontis, slight foxing to first and last few pages, otherwise a good-plus set with clean tight contents.
Seller: ROBIN SUMMERS BOOKS LTD, Aldeburgh, United Kingdom
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First printing. Leather spine with marbled boards. Covers worn, with chipping along edges and spine. A couple small bookplates on front endpapers of volume 2.
Seller: Moe's Books, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$276.22 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: complete in 2 volumes. cm.21,5x28, pp.XXV,703,VIII,728, NOTA:Piatto anteriore del volume secondo, staccato. / London, A. Strahan and T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies (succesors to Mr. Cadell complete in 2 volumes. cm.21,5x28, pp.XXV,703,VIII,728, rilegatura in tutta pelle, 6 nervi in pelle ai dorsi, legatura coeva. First edition. Prima edizione. rilegatura in tutta pelle, 6 nervi in pelle ai dorsi, legatura coeva.
Seller: FIRENZELIBRI SRL, Reggello, FI, Italy
Price: US$322.07 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Hardbacks, full-calf, spines relaid retaining original backstrips. Gilt borders to boards. Marbled end-papers. 3 vols 4to. xxv, 703pp; viii, 726pp; x, x, 691pp. Frontis in vol. 1 & 3, folding genealogical table in vol. 3. 1st edition 1796-1815. Bindings are rubbed and worn. Previous owner's small bookplate to front pastedown in each vol. A rather pleasing set. A heavy set, additional postage may be required for orders outside the UK. (bs33a)
Seller: Besleys Books PBFA, Diss, United Kingdom
Price: US$450.89 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Two volumes (without the supplementary volume published in 1815 by John Murray) Medium 4to (12 x 9.5 ins); pp xxv, [2], 2-703 + viii, [1], 2-726, [2] Illustrated by silhouette and portrait frontispieces, folding genealogical table and by tables in the text. Bound in full calf boards with spines in compartments with gilt bands and decorations, contrasting red and black morocco title labels, one chipped. Head of spine on vol I chipped, rubbing to extremities throughout, tips of corners somewhat crushed. Hinges tender. With occasional scattered spots of foxing across both vols, in no place disfiguring. Bookplates of Henry Thomas Lane of rampant griffins facing away from each other. With two pages of Errata, in vol I on the verso of p xxv and in vol II on the recto of last leaf. With in index in vol II. A handsome library set. [Norton, 131]
Seller: Worlds End Bookshop (ABA, PBFA, ILAB), LONDON, United Kingdom
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Description: 2 vols. 703p; 726p. Rebound. A set of two large hardcover books rebound in blue cloth. Volume 1 is in essentially fine condition, apart from some very minimal foxing. Text unmarked and binding quite secure. Volume 2 has a small hole in the title page and penetrating as far as page 12, and on the blank rear free endpaper. Otherwise, only mild occasional foxing, unmarked text, and secure binding. Overall, this pair of volumes is in very nice condition. A two-volume anthology of Gibbons' lectures, essays, and correspondence. Most selections are in English, but a substantial amount is in French. Both volumes measure approx. 11.2" x 8.75"
Seller: Kubik Fine Books Ltd., ABAA, Dayton, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$622.11 + shipping
Description: 4to, 28.5cm, The First Edition in 2 volumes, XXV,[1](Errata),703,[1] & viii,726,[2](Errata and publishers' ads.), in contemporary full diced calf boards, panelled with gilt rosettes borders, expertly reback in calf with gilt decorated raised bands, gilt decorations and borders in the panels, gilt titles, gilt roll inner dentelles, original marbled endpapers and edges, inner linen hinges, ownership signature on titles ("John Jefferys 1811") and armorial bookplate "William Henry Smith" on the front paste-down endpaper, frontis silhouette portrait in volume one, some occasional light unobtrusive damp staining in the text, some occasional wear on the boards, a fine set (ds1). ~ This is an invaluable autobiography of the controversial historian, Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788). Editor John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield (1735-1821), Gibbon's close friend and literary executor, remarks in the preface: "Few men have ever so fully unveiled their own character, by a minute narrative of their sentiments and pursuits with a genuine confession of his little foibles and peculiarities, and a good-humoured and natural display of his own conduct and opinions." These memoirs are most interesting for Gibbon's reflections on the development of his 'History,' which sparked so much outrage from the public and the Church relative to its historical treatment of Christianity. They are also rich in commentary about his contemporaries, and the political regimes in England and Revolutionary France. The two volumes are the first editions; a third volume was published separately in 1815 by John Murray.
Seller: J. Patrick McGahern Books Inc. (ABAC), Ottawa, ON, Canada
Price: US$690.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Contemporary full leather with gilt titles and designs on the spines. Binding is in POOR condition. Some mending has been attempted, but both volumes require rebinding. The front board on volume 2 is detached. Previous owner's small bookplate on the feps. Interiors are VG; pages clear and bright, with occasional light foxing, especially the few first and last pages. Volume 1: xxv + 703 pages. Errata sheet facing page 1. Volume 2: viii+ 726 pages. Errata sheet at the back. Silhouette of Gibbon in volume 1. Size: 9 x 11
Seller: J. Wyatt Books, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Price: US$1237.72 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: With Meomirs of his Life and Writings, Composed by Himself: Illustrated from His Letters, with Occasional Notes and Narrative, by John Lord Sheffield. First ed. 4to. 2 vols. xxvi, 703, viii, 726pp. Frontispiece. Contemporary full calf, marbled edges and end-papers, outer joint slightly damaged, ex-libris on front end-paper of each volume. With slipcase. First Editions of the first two volumes issued in 1796 and first edition of the third volume, issued in 1815. Illustrated with frontispiece engravings in volumes one and three and with epitaph leaf and folding genealogical table in volume three.
Seller: The Isseido Booksellers, ABAJ, ILAB, Tokyo, Japan
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: Frontispiece portrait, 2 vols., large 4to, bound in full mottled calf (rubbed), green leather spine labels; (light foxing on a few pages, otherwise fine). London: A. Strahan, T. Cadell Jun, W. Davies, 1796. Very good (+)
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: Edition : First edition, Contemporary full tree calf with gilt greek-tooled border, rebacked expertly in seven compartments of gilt-tooled bands and gilt floral motifs, gilt red and yellow morocco labels on two and five respectively. , During his life, Edward Gibbon made several attempts at writing his memoirs. After his death, these were pieced together by his close friend, Lord Sheffield, who added letters and additional writings. A third volume of miscellaneous works was added in 1815., Size : 4to, Ex-libris on front paste-down endpaper. With frontis silhouette portrait., Volume : Two volumes., References : Rothchild 948, P. Volume 1. frontis, title, blank, iii-xxv, (1), 1-703; Volume 2. title, blank, iii-viii, 1-726, errata, advertisement. Occasional light foxing, otherwise an excellent copy, text is clean and crisp.
Seller: Alexandre Antique Prints, Maps & Books, Toronto, ON, Canada
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of Gibbonâs memoirs, letters, and additional works, posthumously collected and published by his closest friend, John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield. Quarto, bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, engraved frontispiece portrait of Gibbon. In near fine condition. A very attractive example of one of the first modern autobiographies published in the English language. When Gibbon died in 1794, he left his personal papers to Lord Sheffield, who carefully selected and edited them. âFew men, I believe, have ever so fully unveiled their own character, by a minute narrative of their sentiments and pursuits, as Mr. Gibbon will here be found to have done; not with study and labour-not with an affected frankness-but with a genuine confession of his little foibles and peculiarities, and a good-humoured and natural display of his own conduct and opinions.â Gibbon's Memoirs are considered one of the first autobiographies in the modern sense of the word, and have a secure place in the canon of English literature.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$27500.00 + shipping
Description: 8 volumes. RARE AND ELUSIVE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF ALL SIX VOLUMES OF THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL. FIRST STATE of Volume I with errata uncorrected in the text and notes and with the cancels as called for, X4 (text) and a4 (notes) are so signed. Only 500 copies of the first issue of Volume I are known to have been printed. With the FIRST EDITION of the MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. Engraved portrait after the painting by Joshua Reynolds in Volume I, three large and finely engraved folding maps of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire and Constantinople. With the half-titles to Volumes III-VI of the Decline and Fall. The Miscellaneous Works with a silhouette engraving to Volume I. 4to (280 x 220 mm), in a beautiful binding of full contemporary mottled calf, the covers with borders in gilt, the backs fully gilt with compartments separated by gilt tooled lines and gilt rolled decorative bands. Elaborately and handsomely designed in the compartments incorporating central gilt tools, and elaborate overall tooling gilt, lettering and numbering in gilt on red morocco labels in the appropriate compartments. History of the Decline and Fall: viii, (xvi), (vii, blank), (1) - 586, (2 Notes, Advertisements), lxxxviii, (1 errata, blank); (2), (1) - 640, (errata, blank), ; (xii), (1) - 640, (1 errata, blank); (iv), viii, (viii), (1) - 620; (xii), (1) - 684; (xiv), (1) - 646, (51, General Index), (1 errata) pp.; Miscellaneous Works: xxv, (1 errata), 703, blank; viii, 726, (errata, advertisements leaf) pp. A very handsome set of both of Gibbon's writings, the text leaves very well preserved, quite clean, crisp and unpressed, the bindings handsomely presented, the hinges and tips restored and strengthened as required over the years, original spine panels laid down, one volume number replaced at a later date, one volume with hinges starting, the spine panels all original to the bindings. A rare and elusive set restored as required and retaining all the original materials, the backs all original to the bindings. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION OF EACH VOLUME. BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED IN FULL AND VERY HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY CALF BINDINGS IN ORIGINAL CONDITION AND RETAINING THE ORIGINAL SPINE PANELS. WITH THE RARE HALF-TITLES TO VOLUMES 3-6, AND A LARGER COPY THAN IS USUALLY ENCOUNTERED. THIS COLLECTION ALSO WITH THE TWO VOLUMES OF THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. Approximately 1000 copies of the various states of the the first edition of the first volume were most likely printed though the original plan was for only 500. Thus, full sets of the first edition are now rare and first issue copies, doubly so. THE GREATEST HISTORICAL WORK EVER UNDERTAKEN. It was in Italy while "musing amid the ruins of the Capital" that Gibbon formed the plan of his history. Originally published in six volumes from 1776 to 1788, Gibbon's fine scholarship has remained for the most part unchallenged. The work's numerous reprintings throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are evidence of its popularity and historical accuracy. The success of the work was immediate. "I am at a loss," Gibbon wrote, "how to describe the success of the work without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand, and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the pyrates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost on every toilette." Publication of this grand work placed Gibbon at the "very head of the literary tribe" in Europe, according to Adam Smith. "For twenty-two years Gibbon was a prodigy of steady and arduous application. His investigations extended over almost the whole range of intellectual activity for nearly fifteen-hundred 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, pp. 146-147). Concerning the Miscellaneous Works, here are included notes, letters, diaries, essays and unpublished works. The printing includes pieces in both English and French and occasional writing in Latin is interspersed. The work was gathered by Lord Sheffield and it was on the Sheffield family estate that Gibbon was buried after his passing.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.