Lot 266
  • 266

Donne, John

Estimate
2,500 - 3,500 USD
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Description

  • Donne, John
  • Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, and severall Steps in my Sicknes: Digested into 1. Meditations upon our Humane Condition. 2. Expostulations, and Debatements with God. 3. Prayers, upon the severall Occasions, to Him. London: Printed by A[ugustine]. M[athewes]. for Thomas Jones, 1624
  • printed book
12mo (5 5/8 x 3 1/8 in.; 142 x 80 mm). Type-ornament headpieces, with terminal blank Ee4; title-page lightly browned, a bit frayed at edges and restored. Contemporary calf, covers ruled in gilt and blind with central gilt fan ornament and initials wb, smooth spine ruled in gilt, plain endpapers, red-sprinkled edges; extremities rubbed, minor repair to joints, spine cracked between quires O and P.

Provenance

Steven Donne (signature, 1876, inside front cover). acquisition: Seven Gables, 1973

Literature

STC 7033; ESTC S109806; Grolier/Donne 17; Grolier/Wither to Prior 281; Keynes, Donne 34

Condition

12mo (5 5/8 x 3 1/8 in.; 142 x 80 mm). Type-ornament headpieces, with terminal blank Ee4; title-page lightly browned, a bit frayed at edges and restored. Contemporary calf, covers ruled in gilt and blind with central gilt fan ornament and initials wb, smooth spine ruled in gilt, plain endpapers, red-sprinkled edges; extremities rubbed, minor repair to joints, spine cracked between quires O and P.
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

First edition. A very good copy of Donne's most popular prose work, which went through three editions during his lifetime. Meditation 17 contains what have certainly become Donne's most famous lines: "Perchance hee for whom this Bell tolls, may bee so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him. … No man is an Island, intire of itself; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as it a Promontorie were, as well if a Mannor of they friends, or of thine owne were; Any Mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."