Domesday Book. [London, 1783].. Two folio volumes, 382 leaves; 450 pages. No title pages, as issued.. Full conte... (Total: 2 Items)

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The Domesday Book, Printed in Its Entirety for the First Time

Domesday Book. [London, 1783].

Two folio volumes, 382 leaves; 450 pages. No title pages, as issued.

Full contemporary calf. Raised bands. Rebacked in olive leather with polished morocco title labels to spines. Some scuffing to boards and bumping to corners. Hinges cracked, but bindings tight and square. Endpapers browning at edges. Front free endpaper to Volume I detached but present. Armorial bookplates to front pastedowns of Eustachius Strickland, author and barrister. Later inked presentation inscription (dated 1854) to the Rev. Robert Machell on the front free endpapers of each volume. Also, penciled name of yet another previous owner (dated 1993) to the front pastedowns - in the same hand are light penciled notations of a bibliographic nature concerning the book. Very good.

"The Domesday Book is the most ancient record in the [British] kingdom, and the register from which judgment was to be given upon the value, tenure, and services of the lands therein described. It was made in consequence of a survey order by William the Conqueror, and completed in 1086. Hume calls it the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any nation" (Lowndes and Bohn). The two volumes published in 1783 marked the first time this work had been printed in its entirety. There were no title pages issued at this date. A third volume of indices was published in 1811; and a forth volume, which included the Boldon Book, the Exon Domesday, etc., came out in 1816. Lowndes and Bohn note that "vols. 1 and 2, 1783, were never reprinted, but titles printed for them in 1816, and again in 1833."

ESTC, T97297. William Thomas and Henry George Bohn, The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, III, 659.