Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esquire. With Memoirs of His Life and Writings, Composed by Himself: Illustrated from His Letters, with Occasional Notes and Narrative by John Lord Sheffield.

GIBBON, Edward.

$3,000.00

Item Number: 135133

London: Printed for A. Strahan, and T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1796.

First edition of Gibbon’s memoirs, letters, and additional works, posthumously collected and published by his closest friend, John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield. Quarto, bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, engraved frontispiece portrait of Gibbon. In near fine condition. A very attractive example of one of the first modern autobiographies published in the English language.

When Gibbon died in 1794, he left his personal papers to Lord Sheffield, who carefully selected and edited them. “Few men, I believe, have ever so fully unveiled their own character, by a minute narrative of their sentiments and pursuits, as Mr. Gibbon will here be found to have done; not with study and labour-not with an affected frankness-but with a genuine confession of his little foibles and peculiarities, and a good-humoured and natural display of his own conduct and opinions.” Gibbon's Memoirs are considered one of the first autobiographies in the modern sense of the word, and have a secure place in the canon of English literature.