The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire + The Life of Edward Gibbon, Esq. With Selections from His Correspondence and Illustrations. By Rev. H.H. Milman. [13 Volumes]
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1838. Full Leather. Octavo. Very Good. Item #37084
12 volumes + 1: Vol. 1 - Pp. xliv, 478, 8-page publisher's catalogue dated March, 1838, 2 folding maps with 1 being hand-coloured; Vol. 2 - xiv, 502, 12-page 12 mo.-size publisher's catalogue dated April, 1838, 1 folding map; Vol. 3 - viii, 404, 12-page publisher's catalogue dated May, 1838, double-page map; Vol. 4 - viii, 422, 12-page publisher's catalogue dated June, 1838, 1 folding map with route outlines hand-coloured; Vol. 5 - viii, 412, 12-page publisher's catalogue dated August, 1838, 1 folding map; Vol. 6 - xi, 397, 4-page publisher's catalogue no date, 1 folding map hand-coloured in outline; Vol. 7 - xv, 426, 12-page publisher's catalogue dated October, 1838, 1 folding map; Vol. 8 - xi, 376, 32-page publisher's catalogue dated October, 1838, 1 folding map; Vol. 9 - xii, 495, 6-page publisher's catalogue dated December, 1838, 1 folding hand-coloured map; Vol. 10. John Murray, 1839 - xii, 370, 32-page publisher's catalogue dated December, 1838, 1 folding map hand-coloured in ouline; Vol. 11. John Murray, 1839 - xi, 447, 8-page publisher's catalogue dated January, 1839, 1 folding map with route outlines hand-coloured; Vol. 12. John Murray, 1839 - xv, 527, 6-page publisher's catalogue dated January 1839, 1 folding map, tipped-in errata slip; Vol. 13 (Life of Gibbon), John Murray, 1839 - From the library of Philip Merivale, British film, stage actor and screenwriter, with his signature, date of 1936 New York, in pencil, engraved frontispiece portrait of Gibbon by E. Scriven after Joshua Reynolds, with tissue guard, pp. xvi, 455, 12-page publisher's catalogue dated March 30, 1839. Uniformly bound in half wine-coloured leather and cloth, top edge gilt, 5 gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt spine lettering, plain maroon endpapers. Joints, tips, and some edges rubbed, vol. 5 with pull to the head of spine, vol. 12 with small abrasion at top edge of rear board, vol. 6 with 2 conjoined pages loose from binding, vol. 13 (The Life) with misprint of Milman's name to spine as "Milnan", light foxing to prelims and end pages only, interior clean and bright, except for the occassional bit of offsetting, engraved maps are clean and bright, light pencil notes to rear endpaper in several volumes. Overall, a clean, handsome, uniformly bound set with the additional volume The Life of Gibbon. Gibbon's masterful history of the Roman Empire was issued in six quarto volumes over the course of twelve years between 1776 and 1788. Modest expectations on the part of both author and publisher regarding the market for such an imposing work resulted in an initial printing of only 1000 copies of the original printing. This proved a serious miscalculation of the demand (and subsequently made complete sets of the first edition difficult to come by). Within a fortnight the first edition was completely sold out. "I am at a loss", wrote Gibbon in his Memoirs, "how to describe the success of the work without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted within 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 every toilette; the historian was crowned by the taste or fashion of the day." (Gibbon, Miscellaneous Works and Memoirs. 2nd ed. London, 1814, Vol. I., p. 223).
Price (CAD): $1,500.00