Author: Clarendon, Edward (Hyde), Earl of:

Title: The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.

Publication: Oxford: printed at the Theater 1702; 1703; 1704.

Description: First edition. 3 vols. Folio, pp.[ii], XXIII, [i], 557, [iii]; [xvi], 581, [i]; xxii, 603, [xxiii] + portrait frontispiece to each vol. Bound without half-titles. Engraved vignette to title, engraved initials and head- and tail-pieces. Lightly foxed, a few smudgy marks, occasional small pencil notes, vol.III portrait stuck a little to ffep at gutter causing separation from textblock and a short closed tear, vol.III A4 with closed tear of approx. 5.5cm to tail edge affecting lower and gutter margins. Uniform library bindings, quarter mottled grey-brown calf, spine gilt ruled with red labels, volume number and date tooled directly, orange buckram boards, endpapers renewed, cloth joints, a little rubbed, corners slightly bumped, very good. Small embossed stamp of Leicester Free Library to frontispieces, title-pages, and final few leaves.

Clarendon's major work, not published until many years after his death. 'The remainder of Clarendon's manuscripts remained unpublished for more than twenty-five years, although his sons allowed certain politically sympathetic individuals - among them Archbishop Sancroft - to see them. The first volume of the History of the Rebellion, the text put together in 1671?2 out of the History and the Life, was not published until 1702, after the accession to the throne of Clarendon's granddaughter, Anne. Laurence Hyde, earl of Rochester, contributed a carefully nuanced defence of his father to the first volume; by the time the second and third volumes were published in 1704, Rochester's dismissal from government made him give a more partisan, tory edge to their dedications to the queen.' (ODNB)

Bibliography: ESTC T53939, T147813 and T147812.

Reference Number: [55043]

Price: £1000

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