Beschreibung:

DRAYTON, Michael (1563-1631). A Chorographicall Description of all the tracts, rivers, mountains, forests, and other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britain. London: John Marriott, John Grismand, and Thomas Dewe, 1622. [ Bound with :] The Second Part: or A Continuance of Poly-Olbion from the Eighteenth Song . London: Augustine Mathewes for John Marriott, John Grismand and Thomas Dewe, 1622. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (272 x 181mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece of Britannia and portrait of Prince Henry by W. Hole, 30 double-page engraved maps. (Preliminary leaf, frontispiece, title-page, and some maps re-hinged, a few small repairs to maps and to margins, occasional light soiling, minor amateur colouring to map of Cumberland.) Late 19th-century red morocco gilt, gilt edges, by J. Leighton. Provenance: Thomas Edward Watson (bookplate; by descent to the present owners). FIRST EDITIONS, third issue of part one, and first variant of part two. Poly-Olbion is Drayton's great patriotic poem and most ambitious work, with which he intended to awaken his reader to the beauty and glory of Britain. Each of the thirty songs in Drayton's poetic survey is accompanied by a map of the region celebrated, with personifications of rivers, mountains and towns. "According to Ellis, 'a wonderful work, exhibiting at once the learning of an historian, an antiquary, a naturalist, and a geographer: and embellished by the imagination of a poet.'" (Lowndes, p. 671). Part one has the benefit of "dry but characteristically interesting notes" by John Selden (1584-1654). Drayton had difficulty in finding a publisher for the second part, and even contemplated the then extraordinary step of having the work printed in Edinburgh. The portrait of Prince Henry in part one is the second issue, inscribed at the upper left 'Henricus Princeps'. Grolier, Langland to Wither 84; Lowndes p. 671; Pforzheimer 308 and 309; ESTC S121639 and 121634.