The History of the World. In Five Books de Ralegh, Sir Walter - 1621

London: Printed by William Jaggard for Walter Burre, 1621. Third edition. Hardcover. poor to vg. Folio. (64) 669 (54)pp., 8 double page plates. Original three-quarter brown leather over brown cloth with gilt lettering and decorative ruling on red leather label and raised bands of spine. Red edges. Marbled endpapers. Poem,with historiated headpiece and decorative initial, and 1614 engraved allegorical second title page. Title page with engraved portrait and coat of arms. Historiated head and endpieces, decorative initials. Marginalia. With eight additional double page plates and maps, and one paginated full page plate as issued. Chronological table at rear.

Important work exemplifying how history was conceptualized by early modern intellectuals, utilizing the past to develop moral educational tools for the present. The frontispiece engraving emphasizes this intention showing Magistra Vitae (The Teacher of Life), holding a globe above her head, flanked by Truth and Experience, two figures at each side of her, while crushing forgetfulness and death beneath her feet. The all-seeing eye at the top overlooking the globe held up by The Teacher of Life, and the globe flanked by good and evil fame (Fama Bona and Mala).

Written while imprisoned (1603-1616) at the Tower of London for treason due to a plot against King James I. and first published in 1614. Raleigh had started the project in 1607. The work spanned the time from the Creation to 146 BC and was intended as an educational tool for Henry, Prince of Wales. It was not published until 1614 and immediately suppressed by King James, perceived as a critique of kings. Pardoned by the king in 1617, Raleigh embarked on an expedition to Venezuela to find El Dorado. A detachment of Raleigh's men attacked a Spanish outpost against Raleigh's will. It led to a complaint of the Spanish ambassador after Raleigh's return to England and subsequent request to reinstate Raleigh's death sentence. King James I. obliged and Raleigh was beheaded on October 29, 1618, at the Palace of Westminster.

"For many years, academics assumed that William Jaggard had simultaneously released his own 1617 edition alongside that of Stansby's second edition the same year. Given that Jaggard's edition is a direct copy of the Stansby, it is now believed that Jaggard only released a 1621 third edition, and that the 1617 Jaggard edition was simply a typesetter's mistake where they failed to change the date on the colophon from 1617 to 1621. This bibliographic anomaly is often referred to as a "ghost" citation..." (University of Washington, Library). Pollard & Redgrave 20638a, 20639.

Binding with wear along edges, chips and scuffing at spine and corners with with top foredge corner frayed. Front cover with endpaper and five leaves detached but present. Blue library plates of the Leys school on inside covers. Light chipping at lower foredge of endpaper. Frontispiece reattached with library tape with inked note at bottom margin. occasional notes and markings in margins. Binding in overall poor, interior in good+ to very good condition.