[Rarebooks] FS: First Edition of the MEMOIRS OF SAMUEL PEPYS, 1825

[Charles Agvent]

One of over 50 fine items in our Winter Miscellany of New Arrivals which 
will be posted on our website Tuesday afternoon:

PEPYS, Samuel. MEMOIRS OF SAMUEL PEPYS, ESQ. F.R.S. SECRETARY TO THE 
ADMIRALTY IN THE REIGNS OF CHARLES II. AND JAMES II. COMPRISING HIS 
DIARY FROM 1659 TO 1669, DECIPHERED BY THE REV. JOHN SMITH, A.B. OF ST. 
JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, FROM THE ORIGINAL SHORT-HAND MS. IN THE 
PEPYSIAN LIBRARY, AND A SELECTION FROM HIS PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 
London: Henry Colburn, 1825. First Edition. Edited by Richard, Lord 
Braybrooke. Two folio (9" x 11-3/4") volumes bound in early diced Russia 
calf, neatly rebacked in matching period calf with dual contrasting 
morocco spine labels, compartments ruled and ornamented in heavy gilt, 
boards ruled in gilt, all edges gilt, turn-ins decorated in blind, silk 
ribbon markers, page edges marbled; [2] xlii, 498, [2], xlix; [4] 348 
[2] viii, [3] 311 pages. Illustrated with 13 engraved plates including 
one double-page. The most revered personal history ever written in 
English, Pepys's Diaries cover only nine years, 1660 to 1669, but very 
interesting years in England. Plague, fire, and war are some of the 
events Pepys lives through and records. Richard Garnett says no work of 
the kind in the world's literature can for a moment be compared with The 
Diary, which he calls "the most valuable document extant for the 
understanding of the times." For Andrew Lang, Pepys is "perpetually the 
most amusing of gossips, and, of all who have gossiped about themselves, 
the only one who tells the truth." The Diary was written in a private 
cipher and remained unreadable for more than a hundred and fifty years. 
Bookplate and library label of John Waldie on the front pastedown of 
each volume. Offsetting from plates to text; a few pages at end of each 
volume with foxing. A very clean set, attractively bound. Near Fine in a 
Near Fine custom cloth slipcase.

John Waldie was a noted 19th century London writer and art critic. His 
theatre journals, covering 1798 to 1830 and comprising some 98 volumes, 
have been published.         $2,500.00

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