About this Item
Green printed wrappers, 4to, 25 cm, 81, [1] pp, 2 colour plates (including 1 folding), 37 monochrome plates (several folding). 172 lots. From the introduction: "Of one hundred and seventy-two lots catalogued below, all but some half-dozen are of English origin. Seventy-six contain manuscripts, liturgical, geographical or historical, dating from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries (with one or two of later date). The remainder consist of printed books, including no less than eighty-four published before 1610. Several manuscripts of great importance, together with twenty-nine rare books printed before 1640, deal directly with early American history and colonization. This remarkable collection represents an untouched accumulation of a character now almost unique in private hands. Inherited by the present owner from the Percy Earls of Northumberland and from their descendants and successors in the Petworth estates, the Earls of Egremont, the majority of the books and manuscripts are associated with Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland, whose fine book-stamp .appears on twenty volumes and who obviously owned many others ; and with his son Algernon, tenth Earl and Lord High Admiral.It was to [ the ninth Earl] that the colonist William Straehey, in search of further support for Virginian interests, dedicated what appears to be the earliest of the three extant manuscripts of his " Historie of Travel into Virginia Britania." This elaborate treatise, probably the best of all early accounts of the colony, was never printed until modern times. The Northumberland manuscript, the only one in private hands, is now offered for sale (lot 142). Together with a very fine copy of the same author's Virginian " Lawes," printed in 1612. Other printed works (all of great rarity) are, as regards Virginia, Rich's " Newes from Virginia," 1610 (lot 123) ; Captain John Smith's "True Relation,'' 1608 (lots 134 and 135, variant issues); and the anonymous " True Declarations," 1610 (lots 164, 5, 6) : as regards New England, Brereton's " Briefe and True Relation," 1602. the first English publication relating to New England (lots 21, 22, two issues) : Hosier's "True Relation " of Captain Weymouth's voyage, 1605 (lots 127, 128, two issues : this and Brereton's work have been described ; as " the Verie Two Eyes of New-England Historie ") ; and Wood's "New Englands Prospect," 1634, the first detailed account of Massachusetts (lot 172)… It is clear that very few sales of this character can possibly occur in the future : certainly no guch gathering of Americana is likely to recur in the English market." Wrappers slightly darkened and spine browned, otherwise Good. Seller Inventory # ABE-58700
Contact seller
Report this item
