Item #022906 The Purple Island or the lsle of Man; Together with Piscatorie Eclogs and Other Poeticall Miscellanies. P F., Phineas Fletcher.
The Purple Island or the lsle of Man; Together with Piscatorie Eclogs and Other Poeticall Miscellanies
The Purple Island or the lsle of Man; Together with Piscatorie Eclogs and Other Poeticall Miscellanies
The Purple Island or the lsle of Man; Together with Piscatorie Eclogs and Other Poeticall Miscellanies

The Purple Island or the lsle of Man; Together with Piscatorie Eclogs and Other Poeticall Miscellanies

Cambridge: The Printers of the Universitie, 1633. First Edition. Small Quarto. Item #022906

[14], 181, 102, 3rd title page, 104-130pp. Title pages in red and black with decorative borders. This was Fletcher's magnum opus, a poem in twelve cantos describing allegorically the physiological structure of the human body and the mind of man. The intellectual qualities are personified. This has been acknowledged as one of the best and one of the last great examples of the 17th century tradition of poetic correspondence in English literature. His second poem Piscatorie Eclogs is a poem that pertains to the sea, boating and fishing. A very handsome copy bound by Alfred Matthews, said to have been the most famous bookbinder America had ever produced. Bound in full brown morocco paneled in blind, raised bands, gilt lettering within two compartments, gilt decorative turn-in stamped with binder's name, marbled endpapers. The last leaf, R4, with a poem by Francis Quarles is bound before A1 as in most copies observed. From the library of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. the great-grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. He was born in Boston in 1831. Among his several business adventures (in textiles, banking, railroads, publishing, and electricity, etc.) which he ended in 1880. He went on to become United States Ambassador to France, and later he partnered with the American delegation, the commission to resolve the Alaska boundary dispute. During his philanthropy period, he donated several items from Jefferson's library including letters, journals, legal papers, and books. The present book has a small label to front pastedown as a duplicate from the Boston Library, presumably his copy. A surprisingly nice clean copy with four near contemporary marginal notes in brown ink.

Price: $1,625.00

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