Historical Collections... by John Rushworth. London: Thomas Newcomb for George Thomason, 1659. [together with] Historical Collections. The Second Part... By John Rushworth. London: J.D. for John Wright, 1680, folio.
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FIRST EDITION and a NEAR FINE COPY of the first documentary history of the English Civil War. An important contemporary source for the political and constitutional history of early Stuart England and the English Civil War. John Rushworth, the then assistant clerk to the House of Commons and later secretary to Fairfax, compiled a vast documentary record drawn from parliamentary proceedings, state papers, speeches, and military correspondence.
The first part covers the years 1618 to 1629, including the later Jacobean parliaments, Buckingham, and the early reign of Charles I; the second continues through the crisis of the Long Parliament and English Civil War. This work became one of the principal authorities for seventeenth-century English history and remains indispensable to modern scholarship.
The present copy is a most handsome set, contemporaneously bound, of one of the great documentary histories of seventeenth-century England. As it was released over a significant time span, volumes in matching contemporary bindings are quite rare. Two further volumes were later released in 1692 and 1701 which appended coverage of a further eight years up to 1648, not present here, but the present volumes are complete up until their intended end-point (the end of 1640).
The present copy includes the almost always lacking but important bifold map which is untitled, but is attributable to Wenceslas Hollar (see Baynton-Williams, New Worlds, 83). The fine map juxtaposes a map of Britain with a view of the Battle of Prague, evidently intending to compare the English Civil War with the Thirty Years War as a warning.
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Size: 212 x 321 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
[a-b4, (*)-(**)4,bifold plate, B-X4, Y2, portrait, Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Zzz4, Aaaa-Tttt4, a-g4, h2]; [a2, A-B2, B-S4, T1, portrait, T2-4, U-Z4, *a4, *b2, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Zzz4, Aaaa-Iiii4, Kkkk2, Aaaaa-Ccccc4, Ddddd1-3, portrait, Ddddd4, Eeeee-Xxxxx4]; [Yyyyy-Zzzzz4, Aaaaaa-Tttttt4, portrait, Uuuuuu4, Aaaaaaa-Zzzzzzz4, Aaaaaaaa-Pppppppp4, B-Z4, Aa-Rr4, Ss2, *A-*C2]
A NEAR FINE SET. Each volume collates as complete including the bifold plate; there are a total of six portraits across the three volumes (i.e. four plus the two frontispiece portraits). Near-uniform contemporary full calf, spine compartments tooled in gilt, slightly different design to the first volume implying the bindings are indeed strictly contemporary. Bindings rubbed, some losses at extremities, joints cracked of Vol I, but with all boards securely attached, bindings secure. The set shows well on the shelf. All tooled red morocco labels remain extant. All page edges marbled, faded.
The first volume is the issue without the epistle dedicatory to Richard, Lord Protector (as issued). Lacks one blank to the rear of Vol I., all other blanks remain extant and contemporary. Exceptionally bright and clean throughout the text blocks, free from marginalia, three of the portraits are quite heavily toned, as are a few other leaves sporadically throughout; the bifold plate is in fine condition. No attached bookplates, though with evidence one was removed to the front pastedown of each volume; Vol II part II with an effaced ownership inscription to head of front blank, illegible. This set has probably not changed hands many times and was likely held in a private collection for the majority of its lifetime.
