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John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633....
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Description
Donne's collected poems in a rare contemporary binding
John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's
Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.4to (189 x 138 mm). With the two-leaf gathering containing "The Printer to the Understanders" and "Hexastichon Biblioplae" by Marriot inserted after A4; two woodcut opening initials; final blank present. Contemporary English blind-ruled sheep, spine linings from an early English manuscript on vellum; cloth slipcase.
FIRST EDITION of the principal collection of Donne's poetical works, issued two years after his death, and the editio princeps for virtually all of Donne's poems. This edition was based on manuscripts derived from the author's archives and provided the best seventeenth-century text of Donne's poems, although six further editions would appear by 1669. The volume is also notable for containing the first appearance of several celebrated elegies on Donne, that by Izaak Walton ("Is Donne, great Donne deceas'd?..."), and Thomas Carew's famous elegy commencing "Can we not force from widdowed Poetry Now thou art dead (Great Donne) one Elegie To crowne thy Hearse?..." which concludes with the famous epitaph "Here lies a King, that rul'd as he thought fit The universal monarchy of wit..." This copy with sheet Nn1r in its corrected state (with running head and 33 lines of verse).
Condition: Rebacked, preserving portions of original spine; corners worn round and renewed at tips; worn with some scrapes and scuffs. Lacks initial blank A1; title margins browned and stained, with fraying and upper fore-corner chipped; initial leaves browned and frayed at margins through quire B; some gutter staining at beginning and heaviest at end of volume; internal tear just crossing text at inner margin of R1; some marginal browning throughout; a few marginal chips or flaws; soiling and occasional spotting.
References: ESTC S121864; Grolier Donne 81; Grolier, English 25; Grolier, Langland to Wither 71; Grolier, Wither to Prior 286; Hayward 54; Keynes, Donne 78; Pforzheimer 296; STC 7045.
Provenance: Early purchase note on upper margin of title, dated 179[?]; early note on rear flyleaf "Bought at Auction"; Purchased from Harry A. Levinson Rare Books, Beverly Hills, CA, 1969.
*Note: Updated with city of imprint. From the William A. Strutz Library.
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Auction Info
2024 June 27 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part I, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6295 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
June, 2024
27th
Thursday
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