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AN INQUIRY, HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL, INTO THE EVIDENCE AGAINST MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
(London: Printed for T. Cadell; and W. Creech, Edinburgh, 1790). 225 x 140 mm. (8 3/4 x 5 1/2"). Two volumes. Fourth Edition.
Original pale blue paper boards and cream paper spines numbered in ink in a contemporary hand, UNTRIMMED EDGES. Lowndes IV, 2737; ESTC T136508. Corners mashed (as expected), boards with insignificant tears and just slightly soiled, but the fragile bindings entirely solid; final (blank) flyleaf with thumb-sized hole, otherwise internally especially bright, fresh, and wide-margined. A BEAUTIFUL COPY, in a nearly breathtaking state of preservation.
This is a fully contemporary copy, in its original boards and in nearly unsurpassable condition, of the final edition of a notable defense of Mary Queen of Scots. Scottish lawyer and historian William Tytler (1711-92) composed "An Inquiry," his first independently published work, partly in response to the earlier histories of the queen by William Robertson and David Hume. The center of the debate among the various accounts is a series of letters Mary was alleged to have written to the Earl of Bothwell, confirming their extramarital affair and implicating her in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. Robertson and Hume had treated the letters as genuine in their histories; Tytler, following the school of thought of Walter Goodall, argues here that the letters were forgeries. First published in 1759, the work received positive reviews, although it ruined Tytler's friendship with Hume. DNB tells us that "An Inquiry" was "the most widely read of the literary productions of Mary's apologists," for half a century until the 1809 publication of John Hosack's "Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers." While various editions of this work can be found on the market, it is quite scarce in its original boards, particularly in such appealing condition as here. (ST20597)
Price: $950.00