Lot 77: DONNE, JOHN.

Letters to Severall Persons of Honour. J. Flesher for Richard Marriot, 1651

Condition Note:

4to, first edition, first issue, engraved frontispiece portrait of Donne by P. Lombart, woodcut headpiece, woodcut initials, later calf, preliminary and final blanks laid down on later endpapers, frontispiece laid down, slight staining and small paper loss to title (not affecting text), light spotting and browning throughout, but especially to last few leaves, top edges closely trimmed (no loss), slight staining to covers, rebacked, corners repaired

[together with:] A Collection of Letters, made by Sr Tobie Mathews Kt. With a character of the most excellent Lady, Lucy, Countesse of Carleile: by the same author. To which are added many letters of his own, to severall persons of honour, who were contemporary with him. For Henry Herringman, 1660, 8vo, first edition, woodcut and typographic headpieces, woodcut initials, marginal pencil annotations by Shapiro, early twentieth-century half morocco, marbled boards, lacking frontispiece portrait, B1 to C1("To the Reader") and K1, some gatherings browned, some spotting

together 2 volumes

Wing D1864 (M1319); Keynes 55 (59); Grolier Wither to Prior 296; Pforzheimer 295

[Donne's Letters:] William Edmonds, two early ownership inscriptions in margins of D4r and Mm4v; J. Maitland Thomson and A[rthur]. K[ay]., bookplates; [both volumes:] I.A. Shapiro, ownership inscriptions and autograph notes

the principal printed collections of donne's letters. The 1651 edition contains texts of 129 letters by Donne; the Mathews collection contains 38 letters by and to Donne.