GIBBON, Edward.

£1,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The first half of Gibbons's magisterial history, printed before the release of the final volumes in 1788. Dublin booksellers swiftly issued their own editions as soon as the first volume was published in 1776 and sold them at a lower price in England. "Such piracy was advertisement as well as competition", and Gibbon himself remarked that they "have printed it very well" (Norton, p. 94).

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