Mar 08, 2018 - Sale 2468

Sale 2468 - Lot 230

Price Realized: $ 149,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
SIDNEY, PHILIP, Sir. The Defence of Poesie [i. e., An Apologie for Poetrie]. [40] (of [41]) leaves; lacks final blank. 8vo, 170x107 mm, late 18th-century sheep, spine worn, missing portion at top, joints cracked, cords intact; contents generally clean apart from 2 light stains on title, front flyleaf loose. Signatures of G. B. Way, with note of binding costs and collation, dated 1784; William Augustus White, dated [18]88; and Alfred White Weld, dated 1927. London: William Ponsonby [i. e., Henry Olney], 1595

Additional Details

unauthorized first edition of An Apologie for Poetrie; remainder issue, replacing the original preliminaries with the title page of the authorized Ponsonby edition of The Defence of Poetrie. "The most important critical treatise on poetry written by an Englishman during the Elizabethan period" (DLB), Sidney's work first appeared in 1595 in 2 editions set from different manuscripts. Though licensed earlier to William Ponsonby as The Defence of Poesie, it was published first by Henry Olney as An Apologie for Poetrie. After asserting his claim to precedence, Ponsonby took over the unsold Olney copies, substituting his own title for Olney's title and preface. Pforzheimer 937; STC 22534.5.