BAXTER, William

Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, Sive Syllabus Etymologicus Antiquitatum Veteris Britanniae atque Iberniae Temporibus Romanorum

London: W. Bowyer, 1719. First Edition. Octavo (20cm). Contemporary paneled calf, blind floral roll around inner compartment, fleurons to corners, titled on leather spine label; plain endpapers; [vi],xiv,[4],[1]-277,[27]pp; line-engraved portrait frontispiece. Bookplate of noted zoologist James G. Mead, Curator Emeritus of Marine Mammals, to front pastedown; modern address label mounted to rear pastedown. With list of subscribers at rear. Straight and sound, small losses to leather over boards from worming, both hinges cracked, spine label chipped, internally clean and fresh: Very Good.

Baxter, a classicist and antiquary, was "best known" for this dictionary of English antiquities, which "was greeted with some hostility: Thomas Hearne, for one, opined that Baxter built 'wholly upon Fancy, without Authority'" (ODNB). Lowndes notes that this first edition consisted of 350 copies; the ESTC adds that only 240 of these were ordinary paper copies (110 were large-paper copies). LOWNDES v.1 p.133. ESTC T40850. ALSTON XI.60.

Price: $500.00

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