Wilson, Thomas

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

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Description

The Arte of Rhetorique, for the use of all suche as are studious of eloquence, sette forth in English …. [London: Richard Grafton], 1553
paper, ink, leather

4to (7 3/4 x 5 5/8 in.; 197 x 143 mm). Title within woodcut border; final leaf of Table in very good facsimile, paper flaw in margin of D1-2. Contemporary calf, blind-stamped panels on covers; rubbed, worn.

Provenance

John Dodsworth (signed three times and dated 14 February 1632)

Literature

STC 25799; Hazlitt III, 268

Catalogue Note

First edition of the book considered to be the earliest systematic work of literary criticism in the English language. Wilson's denunciation of pedantry, "strange inkhorn terms,' and the use of French and "Italianated" idiom which "counterfeited the kinges Englishe" encouraged a simpler manner of prose writing than was generally appreciated at the time and influenced Shakespeare.