A remarkably handsomely bound, sturdy, uniform set of the works of William H. Prescott, complete in fifteen (15) volumes.
Hardcover format, measuring 7 1/2″ x 5 1/4″ in height and width, respectively, bound in creamy, light-brown half calf-leather (over tips and spine), fine marbled paper over boards, gilt-ruled spine, five raised bands to spines, each band being also gilt-scribed, gilt titling over black leather labels in compartments, with each of four compartments gilt decorated with borders and fleurs-de-lis, quite fine. Surprisingly sharply, clearly marbled page edges and endpapers. Only very light rubbing and darkening to spines, edges, slight bumping to spine heads and feet.
Illustrated at 13 of the 15 frontises with a fine duotone (nearly black-and-white) engraving or a black-and-white engraving after paintings by artistic luminaries, each captioned and tissue-guarded.
Collated as follows: Conquest of Mexico: Volume I (1861): xxxiv [4], 4-433 pp., plus fine engraving of Hernan Cortes by G.F. Strong; Volume II (1861): xvii [2] pp. including foldout map, 4-480 pp., including frontispiece of Montezuma by William Greatbach; Volume III (1861): xviii [3], 4-524 pp. including a full index about these three volumes; fine frontispiece in black-and-white of Hernan Cortez by G.F. Storm. The Conquest of Peru: Volume I (1863), xxxvi [1], 4-527 pp., including frontispiece of Francisco Pizzaro by Cook; Volume II (1863): xxxvi [2], 4-546 pp., fine black-and-white engraving by Pedro de la Gasca by Cook. Ferdinand and Isabella, Volume I (1863): lxxiv [3], 4-411 pp., including a fine frontispiece in black-and-white by Andrews of Isabella the Catholic; Volume II (1863): xviii [3], 4-504 pp, including G.F. Storm’s black-and-white engraving of Ferdinand the Catholic; Volume III (1863): xvi [3], 4-531 pp. including William Greatbach’s engraving in black-of-white of Christopher Columbus. Charles the Fifth Volume I (1863): xviii [2], 2-618 pp., including frontispiece of Charles the Fifth by John J. McCarty; Volume II (1860): vi [2], 4-604 pp.; Volume III (1863): vi [1], 4-564 pp., no evidence of missing frontispieces to Volume II or III. Philip the Second, Volume I (1861): xxxiii [3], 4-618 pp., including frontispiece by J. Brown of Philip the Second; Volume II (1861): including frontispiece of Don Carlos, Prince of the Asturias by J. Brown; Volume III: (1863): xiv [1], 2-476 pp., including an H. Wright Smith engraving of Anne of Austria; Biographical and Critical Miscellanies (1861) frontis matter, 2-729 pp., including a fine duotone of the author by George Richmond. William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796 ? January 28, 1859) was perhaps as close to a public intellectual as America had in the middle 19th-century as could be had, a fine, “scientific” historian (says his Wikipedia entry) of Middle and North America and especially of the conquest by Europeans of Mexico and Peru. Despite considerable difficulties of eyesight he is alleged to have possessed an eidetic or “photographic” memory. His first major work was The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (1837); then came The History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843), A History of the Conquest of Peru (1847) and the unfinished History of the Reign of Phillip II (1856?1858). The final volume in this set of his works is composed of many score, short essays and works of correspondence.
All in, a fine survey of the life and work of an influential historian and public intellectual who possessed a fascinating back-story.
Offered by Structure, Verses, Agency Books
$475
To purchase, contact svafinebooks@gmail.com
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