Books

A very good copy of John Evelyn's (1620-1706) famous work in new quarter leather binding, retaining the original spine with raised bands, and adding new calf endcaps, shoulder strips and marbled boards. With title page in red and black inks covering all 4 sections of the work. Sylva is the 3rd edition revised by Evelyn and with a new dedication to the King. It is the first edition to contain the poem 'The Garden' written by Abraham Cowley. With 2 page dedication to the King, 16 pp note to the Reader, 4 pp poems, 2pp 'Advertisement' - containing definitions, 'The Garden' with dedication 7pp and Table of Chapters - the index for the whole 4 books. Pagination is continuous for Sylva, Terra and Pomona. Sylva is pp 1-281 and contains 4 engravings, one full page, and 8 pp of tables. Terra has a separate title page - and is listed as the 2nd edition - improved, 1678. It is dedicated to Viscount Brouncker and text runs to page 334. Pomona has a separate title page - 3rd edition with addition 1678 and is dedicated to the Earl of Southampton - text runs to page 412 and includes works by other authors on cider. There are 2 small engravings in the text. Kalendarium Hortense has a separate title page in red and black inks - 5th edition 1679 and is paginated 1-39. There is an errata page at the rear. With decorative initial capitals and other designs. The contents are in very good condition. There is a small stamp for W Barrett 1790 on the fep and a couple of neat annotations in margins. There are a couple of very small paper holes in margins, and one page has loss to the bottom corner not affecting text. There is a small repaired paper tear to the bottom margin of page 399. The second page of 'The Garden' has been bound out of sequence after the rest of the poem. Overall an extremely nice copy.