Description

8vo., on laid paper, with 2 woodcut frontispieces and 16 woodcut illustrations (a number full-page) in the text, endpapers very lightly browned; original brown cloth, boards with elaborate floral roll in blind, back with four flat bands, second compartment with label lettered in gilt, red edges, backstrip lightly pulled at head else a very good, crisp, clean copy. With the contemporary binder's ticket of Smith Brothers of Paternoster Row on rear paste-down. Bunyan's allegory was first published in 1678, less than a handful of copies are known to exist. This much-needed facsimile includes the frontispieces and titles to both parts, the 14 woodcut illustrations of the first part and the 2 woodcut illustrations of the second part. All marginalia (comprising arguments and biblical references) are faithfully retained. The work was not divided into chapters until Burder's edition of 1786. A notable and very scarce facsimile edition.