About this Item
12mo, 178 x 98 mms., unpaginated, pp. [192], including three leaves of adverts at end, but without half-title, contemporary mottled calf, with spine slightly adversely affected; lacks label, but a good copy with the armorial bookplate of Abel John Ram Esq. on the front paste-down end-paper. Little is of known of MacBean's life, though he clearly obtained a degree at some stage, probably from a Scottish university, where the first degree was an A. M. Dr. Johnson took pity on him, found him literary work, and wrote a preface to his Dictionary of Ancient Geography (1773), in which, according to Johnson, MacBean "had given as much labour to Capua as to Rome." MacBean spent most of his life in great poverty; when he died in 1784, Johnson said of him, "He was very pious; he was very innocent; he did no ill, and of doing good a continual tenour of distress allowed him few opportunities." ESTC 006390985 locates copies in BL (2), Cambridge, Bodleian, National Trust, Longleat House; Notre Dame, Yale; Toronto, McMaster. Seller Inventory # 8528
Contact seller
Report this item