[Rarebooks] fa: ENSHRINED HEARTS OF WARRIORS etc. 1861 - 1 of 250 COPIES (Funerary Relics, Burial Rites, Hagiography, etc.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Monday, Feb. 20. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/6wudbam

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Emily Sophia Hartshorne: Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and Illustrious People. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1861. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION, one of 250 copies printed. Thick 8vo (21.5 cm) bound in period (original?) navy blue half morocco and cloth-covered boards; xix + 452 pp.; printed in red, blue, black and gilt; with an extra title-page, index, list of subscribers; numerous illustrations.

A very uncommon book on a highly unusual subject: the separate sepulture of the cardiac muscle from its corpus. As the author writes in her preface: "The Heart of many a warrior in the days of yore, the glorious days of chivalry, found a resting place apart from his body," and she goes on to list and describe hundreds of instances of separate entombment of the hearts of saints and sinners, kings and commoners, from the twelfth century (Henry I) to the nineteenth (Percy Shelley). The list of subscribers includes the noted archaeologist and historian Austen Henry Layard, the publisher William Longman, the Earl of Carlisle, the Duchess of Northumberland, and other worthies. Handsomely printed and well-illustrated, this morbid curio is also decidedly scarce, one of only 250 copies "imprinted," as the colophon reads, "at Newcastle by J.G. Forster." A search of WorldCat turns up only 8 copies in institutional libraries in the U.S. and UK.

Binding shows rubbing and wear to the edges and spine, exterior hinges cracked but both boards are secure; bumping to the bottom fore-corners of the last 30-40 leaves, mild age-toning to the edges; otherwise contents are very clean and sound, securely bound.