LETTERS FROM DOROTHY OSBORNE TO WILLIAM TEMPLE 1652-54

First edition. With a tissue-guarded engraved portrait frontispiece of Ms. Osborne with facimile manuscript as frontispiece and engraved tissue-guarded portrait of Wm. Temple with facsimile signature. Tall 8vo, in contemporary three-quarter tan calf over marbled boards, the spine with raised bands creating gilt-framed compartments with central gilt tools and gilt corners pieces, one compartment with a maroon morocco label gilt ruled and lettered, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. 332pp. A very nicely preserved copy, the text a bit mellowed, very clean and entirely free of foxing or staining, a solid and sturdy text block in a strong, firm binding, the hinges in excellent condition, the calf just a bit rubbed and mellowed.

Edizione: seventeenth century observations on love, literature, politics and religion. in 1654 dorothy osborne married sir william temple, a man with whom she had carried on a lengthy clandestine courtship that was largely epistolary in nature. it is for her letters to temple, which are witty, progressive and socially illuminating, that osborne is remembered. osborne fell in love with temple in 1647, when the pair were both about nineteen years old. although both families opposed the match on financial grounds, seventeenth-century marriages frequently being business arrangements, she steadfastly remained single. following the death of her father, the couple's families sanctioned the match, bringing to a close nearly seven years of intermittent courtship—the latter two marked by this famous exchange of letters.