EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED ALDINE EDITION OF RALEIGH'S POEMS, EXQUISITELY BOUND

RALEIGH, Walter. The Poetical Works. New York and London: (Chiswick Press), circa 1892. 12mo, contemporary full crimson morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines and covers with floral designs incorporating blue, green and white morocco inlays, green morocco-gilt doublures with red morocco inlays in a floral design, raised bands, watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt. $2500.

Later Aldine edition of Walter Raleigh's poems, with portrait of the poet and extra-illustrated with five window-mounted engravings, two hand-colored, splendidly bound in full morocco-gilt with multi-colored morocco inlays in floral designs.

Sir Walter Raleigh's "poetry has been unaccountably neglected by his biographers, though it is singularly well-fitted to illustrate his character, while it left a distinct mark on the literature of a most brilliant age" (Introduction). Includes a selection of poems written by other courtly poets from 1540 to 1650. The "Aldine" edition of British poets, first brought out by the publisher William Pickering beginning in 1830, aimed to introduce scholarly editions of the classics in a smaller, more affordable format.

A splendidly bound, extra-illustrated volume in fine condition.