The Life of the Great Statesman William Cecil, Lord Burghley,

COLLINS Arthur (1732.)

£1500.00  [First Edition]

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Secretary of State in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth, and Lord High Treasurer of England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Publish'd from the Original Manuscript wrote soon after his Lordship's Death; now in the Library of the right honorable Brownlow Earl of Exeter. To which is added, His Character by the learned Camden, and an Extract of his last Will and Testament, with Memoirs of the Family of Cecil, faithfully collected from Records, Manuscripts, and other Authorities.

 

First Edition. 8vo (227 x 146mm). [6], xi, 69, 62-118, [1] pp., with an additional portrait of Cecil mounted on a blank leaf before the title and above Burghley's clipped signature [see below]. Leaf C4 foxed in the blank fore-margin, a few minors spots in places but otherwise fine. 19th-century red morocco, covers ruled and tooled in gilt, spine gilt, gilt edges, plain endpapers (covers and joints slightly rubbed).

 

London: [by William Bowyer] for Robert Gosling...and Thomas Wotton, 

Rare. Bowyer's ledgers record 250 copies were printed. No copies recorded on Rare Book Hub or ABPC.

 

A celebratory life of the great Elizabethan statesman, William Cecil with an additional portrait and Burghley's clipped signature.

 

Arthur Collins (1681/2-1760) is most famous for his Peerage, a much re-printed list of the English nobility first published in 1709. In addition to his work on the Peerage and his work as a printer and bookseller, Collins was also an "assiduous researcher and a prolific compiler and editor" (ODNB) who produced a number of historical biographies.

 

The present biography of William Cecil is dedicated to Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-1793) and includes an account of the Cecil family, a glowing appraisal of Cecil's courtly life and a copy of his will. 

 

The additional engraved portrait is attributed to William Rogers (active 1584-1604). See the example in the Royal Library at Windsor and in the British Museum (where the print is dated c.1589-1610). The print has a number of small holes through it and has been carefully repaired at the lower corner.

 

Provenance: 1. Augustus Frederick (1773-1843), Prince of Great Britain, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, 6th. son of King George III, created Duke of Sussex in 1801, with his bookplate. 2. Edward Howell-Lord Thurlow, 2nd Baron Thurlow, signature and various dates (?reading dates) in January 1822 on the front endpapers. 

Stock Code: 244727

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