This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/20/2022
HOLINSHED, Raphael (1529–1580). [The Chronicles]. The First and Second volumes of Chronicles [-Third Volume...], comprising 1. The descriptions and historie of England, 2. The description and historie of Ireland, 3. The description and historie of Scotland: First collected and published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and others: Now newlie augmented and continued... London: [H. Denham] for John Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, 1587. 3 volumes bound in 2, folio (349 x 229 mm). 6 (of 7) title–pages within engraved woodcut borders, numerous ornamental initials, head– and tail–pieces. (Lacking initial A1 blank in Vol. I and final blanks at the ends of Vols. II and III; occasional soiling, marginal staining and small flaws throughout. Vol. I: title–page trimmed at margins and laid down, A4 torn away at outer margin. Vol. II: colophon a bit soiled. Volume III: lacking A1–A4 (including title–page) and A6). 16TH–CENTURY OXFORD BLIND–STAMPED CALF paneled with rolls including roundels containing male portrait busts in profile interspersed with other rolls on both covers (See English Blind–Stamped Bindings, HM.h(3–4)), 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, later morocco lettering–pieces gilt (old recasing preserving original spines, renewed endpapers, some edgewear, Vol. III joint with some separation, foot also a bit worn, head repaired in first compartment). Provenance: Alexander Hume–Campbell, 2nd Earl of Marchmont (1675–1740), engraved armorial bookplate of this Scottish nobleman, politician and judge, and eldest son of Patrick Hume, 1st Earl of Marchmont. He was ambassador to Denmark (1715–1721) and one of the founding governors of Britain’s first childcare charity, the Founding Hospital, which received its royal charter in 1739. Second edition (“SHAKESPEARE EDITION”), revised and expanded from the 1577 First Edition, of the great Elizabethan narrative history used by Shakespeare as a main source for Richard II and III, Henry IV–VI, Macbeth and Cymbeline. The textual history of this second edition is particularly complex, with most copies bearing cancels in Vols. II & III following censorship by the Elizabethan authorities who ordered the removal of politically sensitive material. According to DNB there were three stages in the castrations and revisions, and consequently copies survive with various states of cancels, variant cancels and original leaves. The present copy conforms with ESTC cancel pagination. ESTC S122178; STC 13569.