Cicero, Tasso, Petrarch, Dante, Terence and Catullus. [DIAMOND CLASSICS].

THE DEDICATEE'S SHEETS

Eight volumes of Diamond Classics. 48mo. Five packets of sheets, as printed, before being cut and folded for binding [c.230 x 205 mm], complete with engraved titles and frontispieces in multiple proof states, before the letters, on plate and on india paper.
London: William Pickering, 1821-1824

The Petrarch sheets have been cut and folded into 8's and are stored in a brown goatskin drop-over box by Birdsall lettered in gilt with the Spencer crest. There is a folio packet of printed waste which once contained the sheets, with the contents listed in manuscript by George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), the dedicatee of Pickering's Diamond Classics series (and first President of the Roxburghe Club). Copies of two of his bookplates are included. There is light foxing to a few of the sheets, mostly the proofs of the frontispieces and titles, but they have not seen the light of day, They remained at Althorp until 1997 when sold by Quaritch to JP.

Stock no. ebc8821