£1,000
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs ft. the Library of the Late William St Clair | 683
Auction: 2 February 2022 at 10:00 GMT
Edinburgh: Balfour, Kirkwood & Co., 1811. First edition, 4to, [ii], 33, modern boards, very slight marginal discolouration
Note: The very rare Quarto issue. "It was probably prepared at Elgin's expense for free distribution to opinion formers such as other peers. The Murray 8vo edition, that is far more common, was also printed for free distribution (One of mine is a presentation copy) but also sold by Murray. Another example of the transition from an aristocratic to a commercial form of text copying" (pencil note by William St. Clair, on endpaper).
Provenance: From the Library of the Late William St Clair