Books

First editions of Volumes IV-VI, second editions of Volumes II and III, third edition of Volume I; together the complete set of Gibbon's magisterial history. "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 maintain their hold upon the layman and continue to stimulate the scholar although they have been superseded in many, if not most, details by subsequent advances of research and changes in the climate of opinion...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). Six vols, quarto (269 x 224 mm). Recent sprinkled calf, twin red and green morocco labels. Engraved portrait frontispiece by Hall after Joshua Reynolds, bound in vol. I (offsetting in vol. II where it was previously placed); 2 maps in vol. II (one folding, the other trimmed and inserted as single sheet as often), folding map in vol. III. Slight soiling to book block edges (small patch of wear to fore edge of vol. I), some light foxing and soiling to contents, cloth hinge reinforcement to folding map in vol. II. A very good set. Grolier English 58; Norton 22, 25 & 29; Printing and the Mind of Man 222; Rothschild 942.

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.