The Pack of Autolycus or Strange and Terrible News of Ghosts, Apparitions, Monstrous Births, Showers of Wheat , Judgments of God, and Other Prodigious and Fearful Happenings as Told in Broadside Ballads of the Years 1624-1693
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927. First Edition. Octavo. Item #008678
270 pp. illustrated. The ballad collection of Anthony Wood, the celebrated Oxford antiquarian, is preserved in Bodley's library, and consists at the present(1927) of only 279 sparate broadsides. These are scattered throughout eight volumes. Pepys himself was a collelctor of ballads but took little interest in them until 1675. From 1680 to the end of his ife he collected assiduously, and for the reigns of Jams II and William and Mary his collection is matchless. Wood, on the otherhand, collected throughout his life. He began when he was a young boy. He contiued to collect until his death in 1695. Though Wood's collection was small in bulk, it is one of the most valuable and mostinteresting of all.. Contains an index of names and subjects of the broadsides. A very good copy bound in maroo cloth, spine lettering gilt.
Price: $45.00