HOWELL, James.

by James Howell

£4,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

.A crisp copy of James Howell's popular account of the history of London, complete with Hollar's engraved illustration of the city with numbered key. Howell's account is a rather spirited recasting of earlier descriptions of the city, chiefly Stow's 1598 Survey. It is a wide-ranging discussion of the city's history, geography, governance and size, with a final section comparing it to other great cities of the world. Significant focus is given to St Paul's Church, London Bridge, the London Guilds, and each Ward of the city. The work includes a contents page and index, as well as a list of other works by the author and a dedicatory poem to London Bridge in both Latin and English. Howell was known as a talented linguist thanks to his time spent working in Europe, and enjoyed a varied career working in commerce and politics alongside his writing. Londinopolis has been called 'his most popular publication of the [commonwealth] period' (DNB X 112).. . ..Several errors in pagination, including a gap between pages 124 and 301, might be explained by the collaborative printing effort of the book's production. There appear to be two issues of this first edition, both dated 1657 but one without Thomas Dring's name. The two engravings are from highly notable continental engravers. The portrait of Howell, leaning against an oak in a forest, is a collaboration between French engravers Claude Mellan (1598-1688) and Abraham Bosse (1602-1676); a first version was printed in the 1641 French edi

• Binding: Hardcover

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