I've been a casual collector of antique dictionaries for quite some years but more recently I've branched out into other books, the older the better.
That said, I don't just buy any old book, it has to interest me and be of an educational nature. My oldest book thus far was printed in London 1607!
In 1607 we had not long lost Queen Elizabeth the 1st, the great plague & fire of London was yet to happen and Shakespeare was virtually unknown outside his own circle (his first folio wasn't printed until 1623. And this too was well before Samuel Pepys thought about chronicling his life in his famous diary.
Of course1607 was the year that Jamestown, Virginia was first settled.
This is how the book was described by the auctioneer....
That said, I don't just buy any old book, it has to interest me and be of an educational nature. My oldest book thus far was printed in London 1607!
In 1607 we had not long lost Queen Elizabeth the 1st, the great plague & fire of London was yet to happen and Shakespeare was virtually unknown outside his own circle (his first folio wasn't printed until 1623. And this too was well before Samuel Pepys thought about chronicling his life in his famous diary.
Of course1607 was the year that Jamestown, Virginia was first settled.
This is how the book was described by the auctioneer....
Black letter text, title within woodcut border, and numerous woodcut initials and ornaments throughout.
A scarce, early 17th century, black letter edition, of John Stow’s famous Elizabethan Chronicle, packed full of fascinating detail of historic events, such as wars, monarchs, discoveries, voyages, witches, persecutions, earthquakes and storms, etc etc.
And the book is.....
THE
Abridgement
or Summarie of the
English Chronicle,
A scarce, early 17th century, black letter edition, of John Stow’s famous Elizabethan Chronicle, packed full of fascinating detail of historic events, such as wars, monarchs, discoveries, voyages, witches, persecutions, earthquakes and storms, etc etc.
And the book is.....
THE
Abridgement
or Summarie of the
English Chronicle,
first collected by master Iohn Stow, and after him augmented with sundry memorable antiquities, and continued with maters forrein and domesticall, vnto this present yeare 1607.
By E.H. Gentleman
By E.H. Gentleman