Books

First editions of Volumes IV to VI, final quarto editions of Volumes I to III: a superb set of Gibbon's magisterial history in the original boards, entirely unopened, and in an exceptionally fresh state of preservation, without repair. The publishers issued the 1789 "new edition" of the first three volumes with first edition copies of the final three as a uniform complete set. The first three were originally published from 1776 to 1781 and reprinted a few times in the same quarto format; this "new edition" is the final in quarto. The latter three volumes, published in 1788, are the first and only editions in quarto. Subsequent editions were published in the smaller and cheaper octavo format. "This masterpiece of historical penetration and literary style has remained one of the ageless historical works which. maintain their hold upon the layman and continue to stimulate the scholar although they have been superseded in many, if not most, details by subsequent advances of research and changes in the climate of opinion. Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose" (PMM). Norton 28 & 29; Printing and the Mind of Man 222 (first edition). Six vols, quarto. Uncut in original boards, contemporary manuscript lettering to spines. Engraved portrait frontispiece by Hall after Joshua Reynolds in vol. I; folding map in vols. I & II, single-sheet map in vol. III. Trivial spots of wear and tiny splits at joint ends, sporadic very light foxing, but effectively, a fine set.

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.