THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DECAMERON;; or, Ten Days Pleasant Discourse upon Illuminated Manuscripts, and subjects connected with early engraving, typography, and bibliography.
London: Printed for the author, by W. Bulmer and Co. Shakespeare Press:, 1817. First and Only Edition, evidently limited to 750-800 regular and 50 large-paper copies. Three volumes. 8vo, pp. ccxxvi, 410; [iv], 536, [ii]; [iv], 544, [iv]. 37 engraved plates, two double-page; 35 text illustrations printed on India paper and mounted on pages; one mounted gilt lettered specimen of red pared calf; and hundreds of engraved and woodcut text illustrations, several colored. (including plate 9 in the first volume) Bookplates. Bound in later 3/4 brown morocco, all edges marbled. Some minor foxing, soiling and offsetting. A handsome copy. Hart 186. Jackson 40. Lowndes (1885 edition), II, p. 640. Windle & Pippin A28. Item #38193
"In 1817 appeared the most amusing and the most successful (from a pecuniary point of view) of his works, the 'Bibliographical Decameron,' on which a great sum was spent for engravings and woodcuts. The reader will find a great deal of gossip about books and printers, about book collectors and sales by auction." (DNB). Perhaps the most lavish of all Dibdin's works...Its publication was a financial success and doubtless marks the high-water mark of the Dibdinian bibliomania." Jackson 4. Lowndes says of this work: "From the information which it contains, and the splendor of the decorations and printing, it will ever be considered as a model of excellence and good taste in typography and the arts."
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