Beschreibung
22 vols., COMPLETE. 8vo., frontispieces in each volume protected by tissue guards as are the numerous illustrations throughout. Contemporary full green morocco, all spines uniformly faded to chestnut brown, five raised bands on spines, lettered direct, compartments and turn-ins DELICATELY GOLD-TOOLED (not crudely stamped as commonly), decorated endpapers, t.e.g., others untrimmed. Some foxing in the text, and very occasional, unimportant abrasions to binding extremities. THE CONDITION OF THIS MONTEZUMA EDITION SET OF PRESCOTT IS FAR SUPERIOR TO ANY OTHER CURRENTLY ON THE MARKET, AND LIKELY RIVALS THE BEST COPIES PRESERVED IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE COLLECTIONS. Prescott (1796-1859) is now recognized as the first American scientific historian; as a Hispanist his preeminence was unsurpassed and his very readable works have retained scholarly value to the present day. "During his lifetime, he was upheld as one of the greatest living American intellectuals, and knew personally many of the leading political figures of the day, in both the United States and Britain. Prescott has become one of the most widely translated American historians, and was an important figure in the development of history as a rigorous academic discipline. Historians admire Prescott for his exhaustive, careful, and systematic use of archives, his accurate recreation of sequences of events, his balanced judgments and his lively writing style." In all his writings Prescott ignored "biased" secondary sources, instead focusing on primary documents. His industrious archival research, meticulous bibliographical citations and critical notes distinguished him above all other historians before him. It would appear that in the Montezuma edition, J.B. Lippencott, the publisher, issued their own routine 3/4 morocco bindings, with mere "workmanlike" stamping on the spines depicting a castle and two crowns. By contrast, the exceptional pointillé tooling on our set is quite unlike that of ordinary copies, and were applied by a binder of considerable skill. CONTENTS: Vols. I-IV: Conquest of Mexico. Vol. V-VII: Conquest of Peru. Vol. VIII-XI: Ferdinand and Isabella. Vol. XIIXV: Charles the Fifth. Vol XVI-XIX: Philip the Second. Vol. XX-XXI: Biographical and critical Miscellanies. Vol. XXII: Life of William H. Prescott One of 1000 sets, edited by Wilfred Harold Monro, and comprising the notes of the edition by John Foster Kirk. On Prescott's enduring importance, see i.a. John Ernest's "Reading the Romantic Past: William H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico" in: American Literary History, vol. 5, no. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 231-249. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 4172
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