[-II].
London: Printed for
S. Baker and G. Leigh,
T. Davies, and
L. Davis,
M DCC LXX. [1770.]
DG210 .G5
2 vol. 8vo. vol. I, 258 leaves; vol. II, 260 leaves, this copy lacks 5 leaves in vol. I, 2 in the first sheet including the
title, and Kk
2-4.
Lowndes II, page 909.
Williams,
Seven Eighteenth Century Bibliographies, 145.
Scott,
Oliver Goldsmith, 223.
Rebound in red buckram by the Library of Congress in 1925. Initialled by Jefferson at sigs. I and T in both volumes.
Oliver Goldsmith, 1728-1774.
The Roman History was first printed in 1769, and was reprinted for the same publishers in 1770. The bibliographical references above are to
the first edition of which this is an exact reprint. Samuel Baker and George Leigh, the first two names in the imprint, were
the founders of the firm of auctioneers now known as Sotheby and Co.
[100]
J.101
Gibbon’s hist. of the decline & fall of the Roman empire.
13. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 5. no. 92, as above, but with the reading Gibbon’s history.
GIBBON,
Edward.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon, Esq; Volume the First [-Twelfth]. A New Edition. [Vol. I-VI]
London: Printed for
W. Strahan and T. Cadell,
1783, [vol. VII-XII]
Basil: Printed by
J.J. Tourneisen.
Paris: sold by
Pissot,
1788,
1789.--
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . . . Notes to the Six Last Volumes, ib.
1789.
DG311 .G421
Together 13 vol. 8vo. vol. I, 240 leaves, engraved portrait frontispiece by Jno. Hall after Sir Joshua Reynolds; vol. II, 256 leaves, folded maps; vol. III, 210 leaves; vol. IV, 226 leaves; vol. V, 221 leaves; vol. VI, 215 leaves; vol.
VII, 194 leaves; vol. VIII, 218 leaves; vol. IX, 205 leaves; vol. X, 195 leaves; vol. XI, 208 leaves; vol. XII, 180 leaves;
vol. XIII, 228 leaves. This copy is mixed; the first six volumes are the regular
London edition, the others the
Basle pirate which form part of a
Series of English Authors, printed in the original language. In this copy the Swiss volumes
each have the cancel title,
with the
Paris imprint added, and the
Basle imprint in each volume reads Printed
by
J. J. Tourneisen [not
for as in some copies].
Lowndes II, page 884 (the London edition only).
Norton,
A Bibliography of the Works of Edward Gibbon, nos. 35, 46.
The volumes are in the original calf, with the exception of vol. XI and XII, which have been rebound in sheep, the original
backstrips preserved; vol. I has the 1822 plate, the other volumes that of 1815. These books suffered in the fire of 1851,
and many of the bindings have been repaired. The original backstrips of all the volumes have been preserved with the exception
of vol. V from which it is missing, and vol. I and X which have renewed backstrips with a later form of the eagle and stamp.
Each volume is initialled at sigs. I and T by Jefferson, and in vol. XII, page 52, he has written the following lines from Ossian:
I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. the stream of Clutha was removed from it’s place by the fall of
the walls. the thistle shook there it’s lonely head. the moss whistled to the wind. the fox looked out from the windows: the
rank grass of the wall waved round his head. Ossian’s Carthon.
This version differs slightly from the printed one, and may have been quoted from memory. Jefferson had a great respect for
the Ossianic poems (see chapter 34) and was “
not ashamed to own” that he thought “
this rude bard of the North the greatest poet that has ever existed.”
Entered on Jefferson’s undated manuscript catalogue with the price
26/6+rel.
Volumes I and III were at one time missing from the set, but were recovered. They are entered on the manuscript list, made
after 1815, headed
Congressional Books Missing.
Jefferson was interested in helping Pissot in the production of cheap reprints of English authors. On July 6, 1788, he wrote
to Francis Hopkinson from Paris:
