Books

~DATE RANGE: 1782-1788 ~FULL PAGINATION: vii, (13), 704 + (8), 640 + (8), 640 + viii, (8), 620 + (8), 684 + (10), 646, (52)pp ~First edition of vols IV-VI; new edition of vols I-III. Vol. I is 1782, ESTC T78359, Norton 26. Vols II & III are 1787, ESTC N36543, Norton 27. Vols IV-VI are 1788, ESTC T78365, Norton 29. Frontis portrait to vol. I by Hall after Joshua Reynolds. 3 maps (1 to vol. II; 2 folding, to rear of vol. V). Half titles to vols II-VI. Index and errata page to vol. VI. Early full tan calf boards, framed in double gilt fillets. Ornate gilt decor to board edges and turn-ins. Rebacked in near-matching tan calf. Raised bands and brown gilt label per spine. 4tos (22 x 27.3cm). Mild wear to board corners and edges. Hinges just starting to crack in vol.6 only, other hinges sound. All edges marbled in Stormont pattern, reinforced at gutters with old repair, probably when rebacked. Hinges sound. Early replacement blank endpages (some with 1819 watermark). All vols signed to top t.p. by G. Kinnear, perhaps George Kinnear (1751-1823) of the Edinburgh-based banking family. Old repair to fore-edge of map of the Western Roman Empire, with minor loss to edge of image. Small (1cm) single tear to edge of each folding map. Old repairs / reinforcements to fore-edges of sigs a-a3 in vol. I, with a little damp-rippling to edges of these same pages but no loss to text. Mild occasional foxing, severe on a few pages. A very few old annotations to margins in some vols. Gibbon's masterpiece, first published between 1776 and 1788, 'occupies the summit of European Enlightenment historiography'; 'remarkable for the way Gibbon pushed at the edges of received opinions, and found fresh and fruitful ways of linking approaches and subjects which elsewhere lay unconnected' (ODNB). A handsome solid square set. ~Robust packaging. Overseas orders trackable on request. Size: c. 700pp. per vol.

Published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, this extensive work by Edward Gibbon provides a detailed history of the decline of the Roman Empire.