'What A Genius I Had When I Wrote That Book'
Tale of a Tub. Written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, An Account of a Battel between the Antient and Modern Books in St. James's Library.
London: Printed for John Nutt, 1704.
Written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, An Account of a Battel between the Antient and Modern Books in
St. James's Library. London: Printed for John Nutt, 1704.
Full Description:
[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind. To which is added, An Account of a Battel between the Antient and Modern Books in St. James's Library. London: Printed for John Nutt, 1704.
First edition. With the variant of the blank space on line 10 after "furor" (but with "uterinus" not inked in) on page 320. Octavo (7 3/8 x 4 3/8 inches; 187 x 113 mm). [x], 322, [1, blank], [1, ad], [2], 2, blank] pp. With the leaf of satirical advertisements and the "The Bookseller to the Reader" leaf both bound at the end.
Full speckled paneled calf. Top edge gray, others speckled red. Newer red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Some repair to hinges and headcaps. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Overall a very good, clean copy.
First edition of Swift's classic satires on corruption in religion and learning, as exemplified in the conduct of Peter (Roman Catholicism), Martin (Luther), and Jack (Calvin) in the Tale of the Tub, and the spirited fight over the highest peak of Parnassus between the ancients and moderns in the Battel of the Books. Both pieces were written at Moor Park about 1696-7, when Swift was acting as secretary to Sir William Temple, whose uncritical praise of the spurious Epistles of Phalaris had stirred up the controversy over ancient and modern learning.
Rothschild 1992. Teerink 217.
HBS 68826.
$7,000.
Price: $7,000.00
Item #68826