BURY'S EDITION OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, "THE STANDARD TEXT OF THIS HISTORY"

GIBBON, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Edited in Seven Volumes with Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Index by J.B. Bury. London: Methuen, 1896-1900. Seven volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter black morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers and edges. $4000.

First edition set of Bury's important annotated edition of Gibbon's classic Roman history, with 10 maps and plans, many of them folding and in color, attractively bound.

Gibbon's "masterpiece of historical penetration and literary style has remained one of the ageless historical works… Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equaled to this day; and the result was clothed in inimitable prose" (PMM 222). "It is still entitled to be esteemed as the greatest historical work ever written" (Adams, Manual of Historical Literature, 146-7). Irish historian and classical Greek Scholar John Bagnell Bury was first the regius professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin, and later the regius professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge. "His historical work was mainly concerned with the later Roman empire, and his edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, with a masterly introduction and valuable notes, is the standard text of this history" (Britannica) and which "put at the reader's disposal the accessions to knowledge gained since Gibbon wrote" (DNB). Bookplate, booklabel.

An attractive set in fine condition.