Typographical antiquities: or an historical account of the origin and progress of printing in Great Britain and Ireland: containing memoirs of our ancient printers, and a register of books printed by them, from the year MCCCCLXXI to the year MDC. Begun by the late Joseph Ames, . Considerably augmented, both in the memoirs and number of books, by William Herbert, . In three volumes. [ 3 volumes, complete set ]

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3 vols, modern calf-backed marbled boards, 4to, [8] xliv [=xliii], 684, [1], + [2], 685-1308, [2] + [2], 1309-1875, [1] pp, 3 portraits and 8 plates of specimen printing, ills. Complete with the list of subscribers, index pages, Directions to binder and portrait and specimen plates as listed in those Directions (the fourth specimen being bound before p 309 rather than p 307). A further folded plate of specimen printing appears in volume 1 after p 508, perhaps inserted by a previous owner. Volume I is the1785 first issue with the error "Soleby" in the imprint. According to Bigmore & Wyman: "The Typographical Antiquities is the great storehouse for the History of English Printing. The original edition [of 1749], for the time in which it appeared, is a very complete undertaking. Herbert was no less industrious than the original compiler, and from the many more sources of information opened to him than were available to Ames, he extended the work [in his second edition of 1785-1790] to three volumes. Nor did his industry stop there, as is evidenced by his copy of the book, now in the library of the British Museum, interleaved, and bound in six volumes, with a very large number of additions in manuscript. This copy was formerly in the possession of Dr. T. F. Dibdin, and was used by him in his enlarged edition of Ames - a work the magnificent promise of which he never fulfilled. The four volumes of Dibdin's edition [of 1810-1819] describe only the printers of London, so that both Herbert's and Dibdin's editions are necessary to the student." Esdaile wrote: "[the] whole study was put on a new basis by the great work of William Herbert. Herbert had acquired Ames's book and materials, and in 1785-90 he brought out his new and vastly enlarged and improved edition of it, based on personal examination of all the books he could see - and he had a fine library at Cheshunt,- on researches in the manuscript Stationers' Registers, and on infinite correspondence with like-minded men. His book is conceived from the typographical rather than from the literary side. English printers from Caxton to 1600 are arranged chronologically; a memoir is given to each, and is followed by a list of the productions of his press, pretty fully described. After Westminster and London printers follow those of the provinces, then Scotland and Ireland, then printers of English books printed overseas. It is difficult to praise Herbert too highly. Many of the books he recorded have since vanished again, and he is our only evidence for them." Ex-library set with library bookplates on front pastedown endpapers, small ink stamp on titles and verso of plates, some spotting and offsetting, but largely clean copies, attractively bound. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-10012

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