Robert Burton | The Anatomy of Melancholy... The Second Edition, corrected and augmented, 1624, contemporary calf

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy... by Democritus Junior.... Second edition, corrected and augmented by the author. Oxford: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624

Second edition, folio (284 x 183mm.), woodcut arms of the University of Oxford on title, woodcut initials and head-pieces, WITH EARLY LATIN ANNOTATIONS to front free endpaper, verso of final blank, and lower inside cover, contemporary calf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, extremities slightly rubbed

The annotations on this copy, which are almost certainly by the book's first owner (named Edward or Edmund Jones), give a tantalising glimpse into an active engagement with Burton's text at the hands of an early reader. Beneath the contemporary calf binding, part of a King James Bible leaf has been used as binder's waste (the phrase "and give him the water of wisdome to drinke" (Ecclesiasticus 15:3) is just visible beneath the lower joint).

LITERATURE:

STC 4160; Madan 521; Jordan-Smith 2

PROVENANCE:

"Edd: Jones, 1627", ownership inscription to title with motto ("rien en rarite"); Thomas Sturges, ownership inscriptions to front free endpaper and title; Charles Legh Hoskins Master (1781-1861), armorial bookplate; later bookseller's label of "Bradford's, North St. Bristol" to title