Elements of criticism. A new edition
Basil: printed and sold by J. J. Tourneisen, 1795. 3 volumes, large 8vo, pp. xii, 365, [3]; [2], 376; [2], 309, [11]; original pink paper-covered boards, manuscript titles on spines, without endpapers, as issued; some wear, spines slightly discolored, but generally very good and sound. Library sticker on each front pastedown: "No. 774. Nouvelle Bibliotheque de Lecture de P. J. Otto." Lord Kames (1696-1782) was a Scottish judge and "a country gentleman of small fortune … He was an ingenious writer, with a considerable knowledge of law and a great taste for metaphysics … Dr. Johnson formed a poor opinion of him. When Boswell, boasting of the advancement of literature in Scotland, exclaimed, 'But, sir, we have Lord Kames,' Johnson replied, 'You have Lord Kames. Keep him, ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him.' … Dugald Stewart considered that Kames' Elements of Criticism possessed, 'in spite of its numerous defects both in point of taste and of philosophy, infinite merits.' Johnson styled it 'a pretty essay … though much of it chimerical,' and Goldsmith flippantly said that 'it was easier to write that book than to read it'." There were many, many editions of the work (OCLC lists nearly 100), and it enjoyed widespread appeal, especially in the U.S. where it was reprinted as recently as 1955. There were only two continental editions, however, both published in Basil, the first in 1763 in a German translation by J. N. Neinhard, and here for the first time in English. Of this edition OCLC locates a fair number in Europe, unsurprisingly, but fewer than 10 in the US: Penn, Harvard, Fordham, Chicago, Duke, Marietta, and San Diego State. Item #66810
Price: $1,800.00
