CHAMBERS (Robert), editor:

Cyclopædia of English Literature. A History, Critical and Biographical, of British Authors from the Earliest to the Present Times.

London and Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1858. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Large 8vo (250 x 173 mms.), pp. xx, 812; xvi, 816, steel-engraved illustrations throughout text, contemporary half calf, gilt spines, morocco labels, marbled boards; lacks half-title in volume 1, front hinges both volumes a bit tender.

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Book number: 3881

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history anthology literature

CRESCIMBENI (Giovanni Mario):

Comentarj intorno all' istoria Della Poesia Italiana ne' quali si ragion d'ogni genere e specie di quella scritti da Gio. Mario Crescimbeni Ripublicati da T. J. Mathias.

Londra: Presso T. Becket...dalla Stamperia di Bulmer e Co..., 1803. FIRST EDITION. 3 volumes. 8vo, 160 x 99 mms., pp. lv [lvi blank], vii [viii blank], 208 [209 - 212 index]; [ii] 3] 4 - 288 [289 - 292 index]; [ii] [3] - 270 [271 - 273 index, 274 blank], engraved portrait frontispiece in volume 1, contemporary straight grain blue morocco, gilt roll border on each cover, spines ornately gilt in compartments, blue morocco labels, all edges gilt, marbled end-papers; rear paste-down end-paper in volume three with what looks and feels like a white natural flaw in the marbling process, but a fine and attractive set. The Italian literary critic and poet Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni (1663 – 1728) published Istoria Della Volgar Poesia in 1698 and his Commentarii Intorno alla sua Istoria della Volgar Poesia in 1702 - 1711. The "Avvertimento" to the present volumes states, "L'Edizione seguita nella ristampa di questi scelti Commentarj è intitolata; 'L'Istoria della Volgar Poesia Scritta da Gio. Marion Crescimbini...nella Seconda Impressione, fatta l'anno 1714..., e in questa Terza publicata unitamente co i Commentarj ....In Venezia. Presso Lorenzo Basegio.' In Sei Volume in 4to." Mathias's introduction "Ai Poetici ed Eruditi Lettori Inglesi" occupies ight pages before the contents. Thomas James Mathias (1753/4 - 1835) was perhaps a better Italian scholar than as an English satirist, though his Pursuits of Literature, or, What you will, published in 1794 was a popular book for many years. He began publishing editions of Italian literature in 1802 and moved to Italy permanently in 1817.

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Book number: 9190

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history literary criticism literature

[DENINA (Carlo). (MURDOCH (John):

An Essay on the Revolutions of Literature. Translated from the Italian of Sig. Carlo Denina, Professor of Eloquence and Belles-Lettres in the University of Turin. By John Murdoch.

London: Printed for T. Cadell in the Strand; J. Robson in New-Bond Street; G. Woodfall at Charing-Cross; and T. Evans in Pater-Noster Row. [1771]. FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION. 12mo, 153 x 96 mms. , pp. [iv], viii, 299 [300 advert], in contemporary gray wrappers; slight staining of inner margin of title-page but a good copy. The Italian historian Carlo Giovanni Maria Denina (1731 – 5 December 1813) at Saluzzo and Turin. In 1753 he was appointed to the chair of humanity at Pinerolo, at the very young age of 22. Thirty years later he went to Berlin for a university post, having been invited by Frederick the Great. This work was first published in 1760 in Italian. Born at Ayr on 25 March 1747, the teacher and writer John Murdoch (1747–1824) was educated in Ayr and graduated from the Universit of Edinbugh. The Oxford DNB records that "After working as an assistant at a private academy, he became a schoolmaster at Ayr Academy, where Burns was one of his pupils. Murdoch described Burns as 'very apt,' although his 'ear' was 'remarkably dull,' and his voice 'untuneable.'" Later, he was one of Burns's correspondents. Oxford DNB adds "Among his publications were Essays on the Revolutions of Literature (1771), translated from Carlo Denina, A Radical Vocabulary of the French Language (1782), a collection of essays and fiction entitled Pictures of the Heart (1783), Orthography of the French Language (1788), and a work on spelling and pronunciation entitled The Dictionary of Distinctions (1811)."

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Book number: 10259

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history revolution literature

MACPHERSON (John):

Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, Language, Government,Manners and Religion, of the Antient Caledonians, Their Posterity The Pict, and the British and Irish Scots.

Dublin: Printed by Boulter Grierson, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, 1768 FIRST IRISH EDITION. 8vo, 180 x 115 mms., pp. xxx [xxxi - xxxii Contents], 351 [352 blank], contemporary quarter calf; boards dark and soiled, spine a little fragile, slight soiling of text. In his ODNB articles, Paul J. deGategno writes, "Macpherson's most important work, the posthumous Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion of the ancient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots (1768), was a response to the Ossian phenomenon prompted by James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry and his translations of the epics Fingal (1762) and Temora (1763). An unabashed defender of Ossian and a recognized Celtic authority on antiquities, John had met James Macpherson (no relation) in September 1760 during the latter's search for Ossianic poems in the highlands. Having provided the poet with various documents on Celtic history as well as leads to various Ossian manuscripts, John recited passages of Fingal and the fragments often heard in his neighbourhood (Saunders, 123; Stafford, 117, 120). In turn James Macpherson later used material from the minister's Critical Dissertations, to which he may have contributed part of the preface, in his dissertations on the epics, as well as his Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (1771), where he again acknowledged John's influence as an advocate of the Caledonian origins of the Scottish nation and as a critic of modern conjectural historians, such as William Robertson, whom John accused of 'looking with too much contempt on the origin of society' (Critical Dissertations, 18)."

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Book number: 10060

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history literary criticism literature

MURRAY (Thomas):

The Literary History of Galloway. Second Edition.

Edinburgh: Printed for Waugh and Innes..., 1832. Large 8vo, 225 x 135 mms., pp. vii [viii blank], 348, uncut, neat list of contents in 20th century hand tipped in before title-page, recently rebound in half calf, binder's cloth, red morocco label, spine ornaments in blind. A very good to fine copy. Thomas Murray (1792 - 1872) began his career as a minister in the Church of Scotland and soon turned his attention to literary pursuits. The Literary History of Galloway was first published in 1822, and this second edition has been extensively revised: "The extraneous matter, which the original work embraced, has been omitted; much extravagance, in regard both to sentiment and diction, has been corrected; and the whole has undergone a thorough revisal. Nor is this all: Nineteen new articles, of which sixteen are altogether original, have been added; and the present volume may be considered rather as a new work than as the republication of one already before the world." This second edition was reviewed in The Christian Pioneer in 1833: "It displays great research and very accurate information; is written in a very perspicuous style, and with great felicity of expression; and is, on the whole, one of the most entertaining biographical volumes we have ever met with."

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Book number: 8777

Catalogue: Literary history

Keywords: literary history Scotland prose Scottish