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MEMOIRS OF SAMUEL PEPYS . . . COMPRISING HIS DIARY FROM 1659 TO 1669, DECIPHERED BY THE REV. JOHN SMITH.
(London: Henry Colburn, 1825). 322 x 250 mm. (12 3/4 x 9 3/4"). With half titles; one leaf of ads at end of first volume. Two volumes. Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke. FIRST DECODED EDITION.
Apparently later--but extremely convincing--gray paper boards and paper spine labels, EDGES UNTRIMMED. Housed together in a gray morocco-lipped slipcase lined with suede. With 13 engraved plates, comprised of two genealogical charts, a facsimile of Pepys' diary shorthand and handwriting, two naval battle diagrams, a view of Pepys' library, and seven portraits, as called for. Front pastedown with bookplate of Stanton and Harriet Christensen. Grolier, 100 Books Famous in English Literature 75; Lowndes III, 1828. Offsetting from engraved portraits, quite a number of inconsequential tears (about a dozen neatly repaired tears, though never reaching into the text), one gathering with three leaves re-margined at top or fore edge (though we do not think from another copy), other trivial imperfections, but the untrimmed leaves clean and fresh, with spacious margins, and the sympathetic bindings entirely solid.
Offered in an exceptionally tall copy looking much as it would have when it first left the printer, this is the first decoded printing of Pepys' diary, a work of fundamental historical importance and sensational personal interest. In his own time, Pepys was known as the Secretary of the Admiralty, a post he held from 1673-88, and it was through his work in this position that he earned the credit for rejuvenating an English navy that during his day had reached its lowest point since the Middle Ages. But to us, Pepys (1633-1703) is famous for this diary of the 1660s, giving important historical detail at a time of momentous events in London, and at the same time revealing an uninhibited account of his private affairs. He recorded the Great Fire of London and the Great Plague alongside his exploits as a compulsive womanizer who imposes familiarities on one young shop girl, tavern girl, and street girl after another (though always betraying a certain lack of sexual self-assurance). DNB claims that "as a diarist he is simply the best there was, with the good fortune to be close to the centre of momentous events. . . in the glass he holds up few can have found no reflection." Written in a dense shorthand, his journals languished unread in the collection of Magdalene College, Cambridge, until they were decoded, in all their sensational detail, by the Rev. John Smith of St. John's College. The present edition was the initial result of those efforts, edited by Lord Braybrooke, to which is added letters between Pepys and, among others, the king, the Duke of York, the Earl of Sandwich, and his friend and fellow diarist John Evelyn. This is an especially pleasing copy, with generous, untrimmed margins, a particularly clean interior, and a convincing simulation of original publisher's boards. (ST20773)
Price: $7,500.00