The Life of St. Francis Xavier, of the Society of Jesus, Apostle of the Indies, and of Japan. Written in French by Father Domick Bohours, of the same Society. Translated into English by Mr. Dryden. London: Jacob Tonson, 1688.
THE VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF JOHN DRYDEN'S FAMOUS ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE LIFE OF SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER.
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Condition:
[(1), frontis, t.p., A3-A8, a1-a4, pp.1-690, foldout map, pp.691-768, (1)]
Relatively recent (c.1950s?) half green calf over green cloth backed boards, the binding naively tooled in gilt with Dryden's name misspelt to the spine, but does remain reasonably attractive on the shelf. Binding with some minor rubbing at edges etc but generally near fine. Without any attached bookplates, but with a scored out ownership inscription to the title page and a pencil date underneath the one in Roman numerals at the bottom. Text block mildly toned throughout as typical, some minor dampstaining to the first few leaves (only). A few leaves slightly ragged at edges. A little worming in the head of the gutter to a few gatherings circa the centre of the text block without loss to the main text. Collation provided above, appears to be complete according to the WorldCat copy, but without the original blanks.
[Wing B3825; John Dryden 171 (H. Macdonald)].
