Elements Mythology Easy Concise History by Valpy Richard (1 results)

18mo, pp iv, [2, blank], 130, bound in original blind stamped sheep, spine rubbed and slightly chipped at ends, rear free endpaper removed, one leaf with small marginal tear and loss of a few letters, possibly a natural paper flaw, light crack to upper joint else a sound clean copy of a very fragile book, FIRST EDITION, a remarkable survival in original state of this extremely rare provincially printed reader. Valpy was a Jersey born educationalist, and headmaster of Reading Grammar School for whom this collection of Greek and Roman myths was no-doubt written, alongside his rather more familiar Greek and Latin 'Delecti' which were favoured schoolbooks of the period. This one is rarer, however, recorded in COPAC BL and University of Reading only, and at the end Valpy, with unusual modesty for the period, admits that it is modelled on French educational texts. Valpy himself was described by Mary Russell Mitford in 1830 as 'vainer than a peacock.'.