Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our earlier Poets
PERCY], [Thomas
Together with some Few of later Dates. The Third Edition.
MICHAEL CHERNIAVSKY'S COPY
Published: Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall Mall, 1775
Stock code: 19679
Price: £300.00
3 vols., sm. 8vo., Third Edition, on laid paper, with an engraved frontispiece, large engraved title-vignettes and large engraved armorials on dedications, some light offsetting and age-staining, tiny uniform signature on blank preliminary in each volume; handsomely bound in nineteenth century full oatmeal buckram, backstrips with five flat bands, second compartments with leather labels lettered, numbered and ruled in gilt, a most attractive set ideal as a gift of for presentation.
THE SET WAS FORMERLY IN THE LIBRARY OF MICHAEL CHERNIAVSKY AND BEARS HIS SIGNATURE ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER OF FIRST VOLUME. Dedicated to Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland, Percy's 'Reliques' is one of the most important collections of poetry in English. First published in 1765, ii not only encouraged 'with lasting effect the revival of interest in our older poetry' (DNB) but became a fertile source of content and style for the burgeoning Romantic movement. Michael Theodore Cherniavsky (1920-1992) was a renowned and long-serving (1948-1966) master of history at Christ's Hospital School and subsequently Professor of History at the University of Waterloo, Ontario from 1967 to 1983. A lovely copy and scarce in this condition. See NCBEL II, 385, 386.