LITERATURE 18 “They Have Much Literary And Biographical Importance” 18DONNE, John. Letters to Severall Persons of Honour. London, 1651. Small quarto, contemporary full dark brown calf gilt rebacked, custom box. $13,500 First edition, first issue, with engraved frontispiece portrait of Donne by Pieter Lombart, and woodcut initials, in contemporary calf boards. “The great majority of those of Donne’s letters that have survived have been preserved through the energy of his son… In 1651, the younger Donne issued a volume containing 129 Letters to Severall Persons of Honour; these letters were not ‘edited’ by him according to the standards of the present day, as, although printed with reasonable care, their arrangement is irregular and they are for the most part without dates. Nevertheless, they have much literary and biographical importance” (Keynes, 133). Among the recipients are Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the Countess of Bedford, and, most numerously, Sir Henry Goodere. Bound without front and rear blanks. Keynes 55. Wing D1864. Wither to Prior 296. Pforzheimer 295. Engraved bookplate. Pages with a bit of marginal wormholing near the end not affecting text, otherwise fine, inner hinges neatly reinforced; contemporary calf boards very handsome. An excellent copy. “Vulgar, Licentious, And Blasphemous” And Yet “Very Pure And Fine” (Coleridge) 19(COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, translator) GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Faustus: from the German. London, 1821. Quarto, contemporary full tan polished calf gilt. $14,500 First edition in English of Goethe’s Faust, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a handsome contemporary polished calf binding by London bookbinder Charles Murton, covers stamped in gilt with a large vignette of Faust, in the style of the 27 lovely engravings within. When Faust, Part I first appeared in a finished form (1808), Coleridge expressed concern for the apparent immorality. Despite this, he briefly entertained a proposal in 1814 to translate the work, a task which he returned to and completed in 1820-21. Coleridge only translated about a quarter of the play into verse, with the rest summarized in prose passages. He never attempted to translate Faust Part II, published in 1832 following Goethe’s death. Bound without half title. Some copies are found with a frontispiece portrait of Goethe; others, as the present copy, with an additional illustration by Moses not in the list of 26 plates at the rear, titled “Frontispiece,” for a total of 27 illustrations. Some foxing and faint offsetting to a few leaves of text and several plates. Minor expert restoration to front joint and board extremities, gilt bright. A handsome copy.
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