[Early American Binding]: [Encyclopædia Britannica]:

$17,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

ENCYCLOPÆDIA; OR, A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.... An excellent set of the "greatly improved" first American edition of the first encyclopedia printed in America, in a fantastic contemporary American binding. Dobson's ENCYCLOPÆDIA was profusely illustrated with over 500 copperplate engravings, constituting "the finest group of American engravings of the century" signifying the "coming of age of American book illustration," according to Wroth. The massive work is illustrated with 542 copperplates engraved by noted artists such as Robert Scott, James Thackara, E. Trenchard, the Smithers, John Vallance, James Akin, William Barker, Joseph Bowles, Francis Shallus, Henry W. Weston, Joseph Seymour, and others. The text comes from the third edition of the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, with some revisions, namely the section on America, which was written by Jedidiah Morse. Interestingly, the entirety of the work is printed on paper manufactured in Pennsylvania. While the text largely follows the third edition of the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, there is considerable added material, mainly related to the Americas and the United States.Subscribers included Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton. This copy includes the armorial bookplate of Charles Burrall Hoffman on each front pastedown. Hoffman was an 1846 Columbia University graduate and a descendant of a prominent New York family.A landmark publication, not just the largest prin

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