Elegant Epistles: being a Copious Collection of Familiar and Amusing Letters, selected for the Improvement of Young Persons, and for General Entertainment
KNOX, ed., Vicesimus
A New Edition, Corrected and Improved.
REMARKABLY BRIGHT, CLEAN COPY IN CONTEMPORARY CALF
Published: Printed for FC & J Rivington [and many others in London York and Edinburgh], 1822
Stock code: 15807
Price: £240.00
Roy. 8vo., text in double column, with engraved and printed titles, and fine engraved plate, some mild and occasional spotting, neat contemporary inscription on blank preliminary; attractively bound in contemporary full diced calf, boards with gilt frame border, back with six flat gilt bands, expertly rebacked to style, second and third compartments with new black leather labels ruled and lettered in gilt, all other compartments tooled in blind with a floral spray, red speckled edges, corners mildly bruised else a tight, remarkably bright, clean copy.
Arguably the best edition of the most comprehensive of the eighteenth century epistolaria. The collection is arranged in four books: Book I: Ancient Letters; Book II: Modern Letters, of Early Date; Book III: Letters of the Last Century, and of Late Date; Book IV: Recent Letters. The coverage is wide, from Cicero to Johnson, and includes authors drawn from several disciplines, not merely literature itself. The nineteenth century editions are scarce.