Author: REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART [editor]
Title: Occasional Issues of Unique or Very Rare Books. Edited, with introduction and notes and illustrations by Rev. Alexander B. Grosart.
Description: Privately printed for subscribers only, 1875 - 1881. 1. Vol. II. Poems of Giles Fletcher, LL.D. (1593) pp. xliii, 103. 50 copies. 4. Poems of Bartholomew Griffin, Gentleman. (1569) pp. xiv, [8], 84. 5. Acolastus His After-Witte (1600) A Poem by Samuel Nicholson, containing quotations and adaptations from Shakespeare and Barnfield, etc. pp. xxv, 75. 50 copies. 6. Vol. IV. The Sonnets of William Percy. (1594) pp. viii, 29. 50 copies. 11. Poems by Richard Linche, Gentleman. (1596) pp. xiii, 89. 50 copies. 12. Chloris, by William Smith. (1596) pp. x, 33. 50 copies. 13. Democritus his Dreame. Or, The Contention between the Elephant and the Flea. Of Peter Woodhouse. (1605) pp. viii, 39. 50 copies. 14. Barley-Breake, or a Warning for Wantons, of W.N. Gentleman. (1607) pp. x, 39. 50 copies. 15. Vol. VI. The Poems of Matthew Grove. (1587) pp. x, 149. 50 copies. 18. Prose and Verse of John Dickenson, viz. I. The Shepheardes Complaint. (nd) II. Arisbas, Euphues Amidst His Slumbers> or Cupid's Journey to Hell. (1594) III. Greene in Conceipt. New Raised From His Grave to Write the Tragique Historie of Valeria of London. (1598). Pp. xix, 170. 50 copies. 19. Skialetheia of Edward Guilpin. (1598) pp. x, 78. 50 copies. 20. VIII. The Poems of Thomas Howell. (1568 – 1581) pp. 106, xv, 107 - 273. 50 copies. 23. Alcilia, Philoparthen's Loving Folloe. (1595) pp. xxxi, 67. 51 copies. 24. Vol. X. The Poems of Mildmay, 2nd Earl of Westmoreland. (1648) pp. xv, 183. 50 copies. 26. Vol. XII. Willobie's Avisa, 1594. Apologie, 1596. The Victorie of English Chastitie, 1596. Penelope's Complaint, by Peter Colse, 1596. Pp. xxxii, 201. 62 copies. 28. Alba. The Month's Minde of a Melancholy Lover, by Richard Tofte, Gentleman. (1598) pp. 132, lxix, 133 – 155. 62 copies. 29. Vol. XIV. The Works of Robert Armin, Actor. (1605 – 1609) Foole upon Foole, The History of Two Maids or More-clacke, The Italian Tailor and his Boy. pp. 228. 62 copies. 32. Swetnam the Woman hater Arraigned by Women. (1620) pp. lii, 95. 62 copies. 33. Vol. XV. Elizabethan England in Gentle and Simple Life being I. England's address to her Three Daughters, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn: from Polimanteia, 1595. II. A Quest of Enquirie by Women to know whether the Tripe-woman was trimmed. 1595. pp. 152, xxiv, 153 – 177. 62 copies. 34. Tasso's 'Godfrey of Bulloigne' translated by Richard Carew, Esq. (1594) pp. xiv, 133. 62 copies. 35. Vol. XVII. Honor's Fame in Triumph Riding, by Robert Pricket. (1604) A True Coppie of a Discourse written by a Gentleman, employed in the late Voyage of Spaine and Portingale…1589. pp. xxi, 111. 62 copies. 37. "Choice, Chance and Change" (1606) or Glimpses of "Merry England" in the Olden Time. pp. x, 83. 62 copies. Small 4to. 36 books [of 37] in 17 volumes, bound into 9 in dark blue cloth. Many title pages from the original works are reproduced in facsimile and there are occasional decorations using original woodcuts. Each title is limited to between 40 and 62 copies after which "Proof sheets and waste pages have been destroyed." Each is numbered, usually 49, and initialled by the editor. These copies were for subscriber George Henry White of Torquay who left them to the Torquay Natural History Society under the terms of his will. They all bear bookplates and spine markings of the Society. The Society collections appear to have been dispersed in the late 1940s. Alexander Balloch Grossart [1827 – 99] was a prolific literary editor with a particular interest in Puritan literature. In addition to editing individual works, he produced, in addition to this one, three further series of early books: Fullers Worthies Library consisting of 39 volumes mostly limited to around 100 copies each, The Huth Worthies in 29 volumes and The Chertsey Worthies Library. He personally sought out rare copies from which to make the new editions, travelling extensively in the U.K. and Europe tracking down rare and elusive volumes. Lacking the first title, 'The Poems of Barnabe Barnes' which was issued in an edition of only 30 copies. This set includes all the additional notes published at the conclusion of the series, errata, corrections and generally tidying up loose ends and providing additional information. These extra pages could be bound in a separate volume, or, as here, bound into the individually relevant volumes giving a continuous pagination.

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