- 231
Davies, Sir John
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
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Description
- Nosce teipsum. This Oracle Expounded in Two Elegies 1. Of Humane Knowledge. 2. Of the Soule of Man, and the Immortalitie thereo. London: Printed by Richard Field, for John Standish, 1599
- printed books
4to (7 x 5 1/4 in.; 178 x 130 mm). Woodcut printer's device (McKerrow 192) and headpiece on title-page, other woodcut headpieces; B1–D1 with extensive contemporary marginal annotation shaved at fore-edges, manuscript verses (some obscured) on M1v, lacking blank M2, washed. Red morocco janséniste by Rivière, marbled endpapers, gilt edges; front joint a trifle rubbed.
Provenance
Arbury Library, Cambridge (bookplate) — Edward Hubert Litchfield (armorial bookplate; Parke-Bernet, 3 December 1951, lot 275) — Allerton Cushman Hickmott (morocco booklabel, page of notes on his letterhead laid in). acquisition: Seven Gables, 1963
Literature
STC 6355.4; ESTC S109379; Grolier/Langland to Wither 65; Hayward 36; cf. Pforzheimer 266
Condition
4to (7 x 5 1/4 in.; 178 x 130 mm). Woodcut printer's device (McKerrow 192) and headpiece on title-page, other woodcut headpieces; B1D1 with extensive contemporary marginal annotation shaved at fore-edges, manuscript verses (some obscured) on M1v, lacking blank M2, washed. Red morocco janséniste by Rivière, marbled endpapers, gilt edges; front joint trifle rubbed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Second edition, a paginary reprint of the first edition, evidently printed in the same shop and at the same time as the first, running just a few formes behind it (see Eberle, "Sir John Davies' Nosce teipsum, 1599: A Bibliographical Puzzle," in Studies in Bibliography, 1:133–48). Nosce tiepsum was the first important philosophical poem printed in English and, indeed, the only notable English work of this genre before Dryden.