Books and Manuscripts

London: Printed for William Sheares Junior, 1657. 12mo. (x), 202, (12), 122 pp. Illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Raleigh by Robert Vaughan. Contemporary full brown calf, stamped in blind, rebacked, spine stamped in gilt, extremities and boards rubbed and scratched, two holes on rear board from removed hardware; all edges trimmed; engraved view of Raleigh's birthplace mounted to front paste-down, additional view tipped-in to same; old gift inscription on verso title-page; waste-paper from a work by Erasmus inserted at rear. Brushfield, pp. 4-8; Sabin 67577; ESTC R20762

A rare 1657 edition of Sir Walter Raleigh's collected writings. "The Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh was, undoubtedly, next to the History of the World, the most popular and the most frequently reprinted of Sir Walter's works. The date of the first edition has proved somewhat of a stumbling block to bibliographers. Lowndes assigns it to 1660, and Watts to 1661, but its publication took place several years earlier. The first edition appeared in 1651, and had no distinctive name, the title-page containing simply a list of principle contents. The same may be said of the next published in 1656. The third, issued in 1657, bore for the first time a special title, Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh, which it retained through all the subsequent editions." (T.N. Brushfield, The Bibliography of the "History of the World" and of the "Remains" of Sir Walter Ralegh, 1977, pp. 4-5). Brushfield records nine editions, published in 1651, 1656, 1657, 1661, 1664, 1669, 1675, 1681, and 1702. He further notes that the first three editions feature varying changes in content, while editions after 1661 remain the same.

This 1657 edition includes the following six sections: 1. Maxims of State; 2. Advice to his Son: his Sons advice to his Father; 3. His Sceptick; 4. Observation concerning the causes of the Magnificencie and Opulency of Cities; 5. His Letters to divers persons of quality; 6. The Prerogative of Parliaments, being a dispute between a Counsellour of State and a Justice of Peace. Sabin notes in his description for this edition that it is a "reissue of the 'Maxims of State,' 1656, with the omission of the 'Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander,' and the addition of 'The Prerogative of Parliaments.'" The first five sections contain continuous pagination, and with a separate title-page for section two, while section six contains a separate title-page, pagination, and register.

Rare. Only the second copy to be offered at auction since 1941. ESTC locates only ten institutional copies: The British Library; Edinburgh University Library; National Library of Wales; Oxford University Library; University of Wisconsin-Madison; New York Public Library; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Illinois; University of Michigan; and the University of Toronto. OCLC locates one additional copy at Princeton University.