This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/20/2022
[MORE, Thomas, Sir (1478–1535)]. ROOPER, William (d. 1578). The Life and Death of… Edited by John Lewis (1675–1747) with a preface (not signed in this edition as it was in the 1729 edition). London: for Thomas Page and William Mount; et al, 1728. 8vo (221 x 127 mm). (Small annotation on A3 in an early hand). Folding table. Full contemporary speckled calf gilt, red morocco lettering–piece gilt (upper cover detached, some wear to lower joint, gilt on spine rubbed). Provenance: J. Johnson (dated signature 1753); George Baker (early ownership signature). FIRST LEWIS/ROOPER EDITION, NOT SEEN BY DIBDIN OR GIBSON. In Dibdin’s Biography of Sir T. More, he refers to the 1729 edition as being the first edition calling it “rather scarce”. A SUPERIOR EDITION TO HEARNE’S MANUSCRIPT. “It was Lewis who found William Roper’s Life of Sir Thomas More in need of careful editing, for no one had attempted to refute the authenticity of the few pirated copies that were in existence, and the Hearn Manuscript of the Life was considered too illegible a document for any scholar’s effort. Lewis…during his stay at Cambridge, found manuscripts other than Hearne’s, and after careful comparisons, he was able in 1729 [this copy 1728] to bring out an edition of Roper’s Life of More that has served all subsequent editors” (Longaker, English Biography p. 196). Dibdin quotes Seward in his More biography as stating that this “is one of the few pieces of natural biography that we have in our language, and must be perused with great pleasure by those who love antient times, antient manners, and antient virtues” (Dibdin, Biography of Sir T. More, p. 24). This is the first time this work has come to auction and only one copy in North American holdings (Harvard). ESTC N20566; See Smith 1981:45; Not in Gibson (St. Tomas More: A Preliminary Bibliography of His Works). From the private library of a distinguished Chicago book collector.