HISTORY, SCIENCE & PHILOSOPHY 70 “The Incomparable Armoury” (Sir Walter Scott) 78MEYRICK, Samuel Rush. A Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour. London, circa 1832. Three volumes. Folio, modern three-quarter crimson morocco gilt. $6000 Early edition—issued sometime after the 1824 first edition, but preceding the 1842 revised “second” edition—of Meyrick’s beautifully illustrated work on arms and armor, in three folio volumes with 70 richly hand-colored plates, ten etched plates, and 27 brightly illuminated and hand-colored historiated initials. Antient Armour established noted English collector Samuel Meyrick as the leading authority on the topic. He was asked to arrange the national collection of arms and armor in the Tower of London and, at the behest of George IV, at Windsor Castle. The text that accompanies Meyrick’s splendid illustrations is still valued as a primary source on the history and evolution of European armor. Occasional light foxing, the odd marginal smudge. Modern morocco bindings fine. An attractive copy of this fascinating work. “Stimulated An Extensive Rehabilitation… Of English Balladry” 79PERCY, Thomas. Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript. London, 1867-68. Four volumes. Large, thick quarto, early 20th-century full brown morocco gilt. $6000 First edition of this important publication of Percy’s original folio manuscript, expertly edited by Hale and Furnivall. For some time Thomas Percy “had possessed an old folio manuscript containing copies, in an early 17th-century handwriting, of many old poems… As an editor of ballads Percy had had more than one predecessor in the earlier 18th century; but… he had more success and influence than his predecessors. The volumes stimulated an extensive rehabilitation of the repute of English balladry” (Baugh et al., 1017). “The book made an epoch in the history of English literature. It promoted with lasting effect the revival of interest in our older poetry” (DNB). “Percy’s magnum opus [was] of tremendous importance to antiquaries and poets alike” (Kunitz & Haycraft, 404-05). In 1868, Professor J.W. Hales and Dr. F.J. Furnivall edited the original folio from which Percy took the poetry. Title page of Humorous Songs expertly cleaned, exceptionally bright text. A beautiful about-fine copy.
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