6 volumes, 4to. Vol. I: Half-title; engraved portrait frontispiece by Hall after Joshua Reynolds dated February 18, 1780, 3pp. contents, x4 and a4 are cancels, errata leaf; Vol. II: Half-title; full-sheet folding map of the Eastern Roman Empire by Thomas Kitchin dated 1 January 1781 bound before p.1 (short tear to fold), half-sheet map of Constantinople and environs by Thomas Kitchin dated 1 January 1781 bound before p.32, G1 and Ll1 are cancels, errata leaf, ; Vol. III: Half-title; full-sheet folding map of the Western Roman Empire by Thomas Kitchin dated 1 January 1781 before p.1, p.177 correctly numbered, p.179 line 18 reading "Honorious," errata leaf; Vol. IV: Half-title; H3 and L2 are cancels; Vol. V: Half-title; Vol. VI: Half-title; errata for volumes IV-VI on 4Uv. (Some scant spotting to a few leaves, dampstaining to lower margin Vol. II, otherwise fine.) Contemporary calf gilt (skillfully rebacked to style, a few neat repairs, some minor scuffing). Provenance: Campbell of Shanfield (armorial bookplates); A. D. McGregor (stamps). 

 

FIRST EDITIONS, FIRST STATE of volume I with cancels x4 and a4 (so signed) and with the balance of the errata uncorrected. While the first volume was on the press, Strahan decided to increase the print run from 500 to 1000 copies; the second 500 or so copies, constituting the second state, have the errata corrected through p.183 (here uncorrected). The portrait frontispiece and 12pp. of contents, issued with volume II, are bound in to volume I. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the only historical narrative prior to Macauley which continues to be reprinted and actually read" (PMM). Grolier English 58; Norton 20, 23, 29; PMM 222.